Malfunction?
by Penpusher
Summary: Re-submitted because it disappeared! This is definitely Taiora - or is it Sorato? Or Sorshiro? Or even Jyouora? Read and find out. And dont' forget to review - I need the encouragement.
1. Chapter One - Interactions and Reactions

Apologies if you've already read and reviewed this fic, but for various reasons, I couldn't chapter it, so it disappeared.I decided to re-submit it because I worked quite hard when I was writing it, and I think it's quite an original idea.This is First Series, in the digiworld, after Kari has joined the group.I knew very little of Gatomon at the time, and in retrospect I feel she is rather OOC, but there we go.This particular adventure occurs at any time you choose during their long battle with the Dark Masters.

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**_Malfunction?_**

# Chapter One – Interactions and Reactions

The sun was setting, a huge golden globe suspended over the edge of the world, sending rivulets of flickering light over the ever-moving waters of the small lake.The shadows lengthened, the birdsong faltered then stopped altogether.Still the lone figure on the shore did not move.The only sound was an occasional splash as a small pebble left a small hand to travel a short way before disappearing into the water.Sora sighed.She knew she should get back to camp – the others would not sleep until she had returned – but she was reluctant to forsake the peace of the lakeside for the ever-present problems of the ill-assorted group of people back at the campsite.The bearer of the Crest of Love was well chosen: sometimes she felt she was the bearer of everyone else's problems as a consequence.

The silence and her sharp hearing made her aware of the other person's approach before they had come within ten feet of her, but she still started as a pair of brown hands landed lightly on her shoulders.

"Thought you must have fallen asleep." grinned Taichi, sitting down abruptly next to her on the sand, his knee grazing her thigh.He slung an arm round her shoulders and kissed her cheek.Sora clenched then forced herself to relax.Really, Taichi was like a human whirlwind – everything happened now, immediately, and with great force.

"Hey, why do you always do that?" he protested.She turned her face to him, surprised.

** **

"Do what?"

"I dunno – tense up like that whenever I touch you?It's not as though we've never kissed before, right?Or – well, anything else."Sora considered, and realised for the first time the truth of his observation.

"I'm sorry, Tai," she began, genuinely contrite, "I was completely absorbed in the sunset, then you arrived like a tornado and I - hadn't really adjusted to company, that's all."It sounded lame, she knew that, but it had to be the reason - what else was there?Taichi smiled gently, and stroked her soft hair.

"It's okay, Sora, I understand.You don't want me to leave?"

"Goodness, no!" she responded, immediately and smiled back.He stroked her hair again.

"Good." He said, his voice turning slightly husky, "Because we don't get much time on our own as it is, without passing up on God-given opportunities."And with no further ceremony, he tilted her chin towards him and covered her mouth with his.Sora felt her stomach clutch again, and forced her muscles to relax._What's the matter with you?_She scolded herself._You've been going out with Tai now for – what is it – four years?If you can call it "going out" while we're trapped in the Digi-World.Wow!Is that how long we've been here?I wonder how these things translate into time in the real world?Perhaps I ought to talk to Izzy … Oh, for goodness sake, keep your mind on the here and now, will you?_

Taichi was by this time Frenching her enthusiastically, his tongue jabbing around her mouth, forcing her jaw wider.He was practically lying on top of her, hard against her denim-clad thigh, his loose-fitting shorts leaving nothing to her imagination._O God,_ she thought, _I've let this go way too far!_Suddenly, she started violently and bit back on a shriek as Taichi abruptly slid his hands under her teeshirt.He withdrew his tongue from her mouth and pulled away far enough to focus on her face.

"Huh?" he mouthed, his eyes dull with desire, "Why'd you do that?"She was ready for this one.

"Tai, your hands are cold."She smiled winningly, and was relieved to see him give her an answering grin.

"Gee, I'm sorry," He sounded sheepish, "But they'll soon warm up!"He pushed his hands higher and tried to continue kissing her.Sora moved her mouth so that his lips landed on her throat.

"Tai," She began awkwardly, her smile rigid, "I really think we should get back to camp now.It's dark, and the others will want to sleep.We had a tiring day's walking, despite the lack of any real danger – Biyomon's really pooped."Taichi looked mutinous, almost angry, and was obviously tempted to argue with her, but he seemed to concede her point and agreed with reluctance.

"I guess I better put myself on hold."He said, moving uncomfortably to a sitting position.He stroked his upper lip thoughtfully with his index finger and turned to her almost shyly.

"Sora," he said, tentatively, "Do you - like me?"Her eyes widened.

"I love you, Tai," she replied, without hesitation, "I always have loved you."He grinned and kissed her hard on the mouth.

"That's my girl." He said, then the smile fading a little, "It's just that you – well, you never really say so – unless I ask, of course."

"Well, when was the last time you said it to me?" Sora retorted with a smile.Taichi ducked his head and blushed.

"Well, ya know, us guys, we – well, we …"_Really,_ she thought, _he does look amazingly cute when he's embarrassed_.

"Tai," she took his face between her hands, forcing him to look her in the eyes, and smiled, "Now tell me."

"Gee, Sora, I – "

"Tell me!"

"Okay, OKAY, I LOVE YA, ARE YOU SATISFIED NOW?"Taichi's face was crimson.Sora giggled and nodded.

"Well, if the others didn't know about us before, they certainly do now."She was still laughing but, relenting, pulled his blushing face over to hers and kissed his lips, not quite Frenching him but much more than a peck.Taichi, still hot for her, exhaled rapidly, stuck his tongue in her unresisting mouth and tried to pin her body against his again.Sora, having escaped once, was not about to be imprisoned again and, slippery as an eel, wriggled away from his grasping hands.Laughing, she took off at a run for the campsite

.

"Why you little..." began Taichi, leaping to his feet in hot pursuit, but Sora left him standing.Taichi sighed.He knew he didn't stand a hope of catching her – at soccer she could outrun anyone, either on the opposition or, indeed, any of her own team.He ran a hand through his unruly hair._Man, she sure is difficult to pin down.In all the time we've been going together, I've never yet managed to hold her long enough to – well, I'm not exactly expecting her to go all the way, or whatever you wanna call it, but we never seem to get beyond kissing!Something interrupts us, someone calls an alarm, she has to go to the bathroom, someone needs a bandage/food/drink/sympathy, she needs to bathe, the others need to sleep … it's endless.And although we sleep together every night, somehow that's just rubbing salt in the wound - I can scarcely make out with her while TK's watching!_Taichi kicked discontentedly at the sand._Now I'm going to have to do some serious calming down before I try to sleep tonight, or Sora's gonna freak out at the state of me!_Taichi wandered slowly back to camp, taking deep breaths of the cool night air.

However hard she tried, Sora couldn't sleep.She tossed and turned, first on her back, then her side and finally her front.Mercifully, Taichi slept like the proverbial log, and was on his back now, snoring loudly.Sora had grown used to the sound, and also to the fact that Taichi liked to sleep very close to her, preferably with his arms around her, but tonight she just couldn't ignore him.She glanced at her watch and sighed – half an hour until her own watch.Not much point in trying to sleep any longer then.She took advantage of the fact that Taichi had unconsciously turned away from her and, escaping his searching arms, quietly moved away from the campsite and the dying fire.

She looked around for Izzy whose watch it was, and spotted him against the stars, sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest on the top of a small hill.She made her way towards him, wondering why he wasn't on that little computer of his – usually Izzy tapped away for half the night and spent most of the days yawning.Tentomon was asleep with his back to the glowing cinders of the fire – he was exhausted having spent most of the day on the wing on reconnaissance.Izzy had obviously decided to let him sleep rather than keep watch.Sora thought longingly of Biyomon's company over her graveyard shift, but realised that the little pink bird must be as shattered as the bug; she had been assisting Tentomon, and had also spent much of her day flying.

Sora could see the vague orange of Izzy's shirt in the pale starlight as she approached the top of the hill.Hearing her footsteps, he swung round abruptly, relaxing as he saw who it was.

"Sora, you're early." He commented.She shook her head.

"Couldn't sleep," she told him, "No point in tossing and turning any more, I don't want to disturb anyone.We all need our sleep these days."Izzy smiled good-humouredly.

"Nothing you or anyone else could do would disturb Taichi; he could sleep on the floor of Andromon's factory and still get eight hours in!"Sora shivered.

"I'm sorry, Sora," Izzy said, instantly contrite.The girl shook herself.

"That's okay, Izzy," she said, "I'm not really worried about that incident any more, it just creeps up on me occasionally – when I'm feeling - well - vulnerable, I guess."The memory of being held upside down from one ankle by a huge, extremely powerful android-type digimon, with a black gear embedded in his leg was not a pleasant one, but it wasn't the worst.Izzy turned to look at her.

"You're feeling vulnerable now?"She nodded mutely and sat down beside him.

"Would you care to talk about it?"Looking towards the red-haired boy, she marvelled at how much he'd changed in four years.No longer small for his age, Izzy was nearly as tall as Joe now, and was starting to put on some muscle.His red hair was as bushy as ever, and his face still held the absorbed expression of one who spends most of his life inside his own head, but he was beginning to relate rather better to his digi-companions.This last offer to listen to Sora's problems was a good example.Sora shook her head.

"It's nothing really, Izzy, it's just..." she trailed off.

"Just something about Taichi perhaps?"She was amazed at his perceptiveness, and said so.He shrugged.

"It didn't take much guessing.To be honest, I've been wondering myself what's gotten into you two."

"Huh!?!"Now he really had surprised her.

"Sora," To Sora's surprise, Izzy took her by the shoulders and turned her so that she looked him full in the face.

"Sora, is he trying to make a move on you?"Sora burst out laughing.

"Izzy," she said between giggles, "We've been going out for four years – it would be pretty strange if he hadn't tried it once in a while, particularly considering he's Taichi!"Izzy nodded, blushing faintly, but still serious.

"But you don't want to, huh?"Now it was Sora's turn to blush.

"Oh, I don't know, Izzy." She started drawing patterns in the dust with a stick, "Whenever he tries to get friendly, I just, well, back off I guess.I don't understand why I do it.I love Tai, I've always loved him, but when he gets heavy I just can't deliver – all I end up doing is teasing him, and that's just not fair."

"Like tonight?" replied Izzy.She nodded sadly.

"I found myself thinking that if I hadn't stayed on my own by the lake so long, I wouldn't have had to deal with him.Now that can't be right, can it?"

"Hmm." Izzy pondered, "Speaking theoretically, of course, as I've never tried to make a move on a girl myself, I would hazard a guess that Taichi can be a little – insensitive?"

"If you mean he's like a force 10 gale through a cornfield, then you're absolutely right."Sora put her head in her hands. "He's unbelievably insistent, and so forceful that you feel sort of mowed down, crushed into submission.He never really gives me time to match his mood, or to have any opinion of my own as to how things should be."Sora suddenly realised that she was talking to a guy, and that he was suspiciously silent.

"Izzy, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you these things."He shook his head.

"I asked you, Sora, and I would help if I could, believe me."She smiled at him, patting his arm gently.

"You already have." She replied, a little ruefully, "I guess I needed at least to put it into words."They drifted into silence.Sora was so absorbed in her own problems that she hardly noticed that Izzy was inching his thigh closer to hers and that their shoulders were brushing gently.Eventually, she sighed and looked over towards him.

"Izzy, shouldn't you be getting back to camp now?It's my watch and you need your sleep …" Her words trailed away as the boy, as if mesmerized, reached out a hand and gently caressed an escaped tress of her hair.

"So soft."He murmured.His hand brushed the skin of her cheek, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake.

"Izzy …" she whispered, uncertainly.He shook his head, admiring the beauty of her profile in the sudden rose-coloured light.

"This is totally crazy." He whispered, "You belong to Taichi.You could have nothing to do with my world, and yet … and yet …" His soft mouth grazed her lips, touched then held for a moment, as a flood of sweetness enveloped them both.Izzy closed his eyes.Briefly, Sora leaned into the kiss, then she leaped up as if she had been stung.

"Izzy, what the …" But the red-haired boy had already turned away in hasty confusion.

"I'm really sorry Sora, I don't know what came over me, I'll go back to camp now."As crimson in the face as Taichi had been earlier, Izzy grabbed his laptop and pelted back down the hill towards camp as fast as his now very long legs would carry him.

Sora stood and watched his progress with her hands on her hips and her jaw practically on the ground.What in digi-world was _that_ all about?Izzy?IZZY??The computer nerd who never had a thought that wasn't connected with his laptop, the Internet, or Tentomon, _kissing_ her?Sora felt dizzy just thinking about it.And why did her crest pick a time like this to decide to glow?As she stared at the glimmering light in confusion, it pulsed once and went dark. Sora sat down heavily and leaned her head in her hands.Izzy was one of her best friends; she'd been seeking his company increasingly over the years for his analytical approach to problems and his interesting opinions, which often differed widely from her own.Their relationship had always been completely platonic, particularly since she and Taichi had reached their understanding, and now of all times, Izzy had decided to make a move on her!She felt like she'd just been mugged by a teddy bear.Which was perhaps why she didn't hear the approaching menace until it was only a few feet away.


	2. Chapter Two - The Attack

**_Malfunction?_**

# 

# Chapter Two – The Attack

Later, Sora could never recall what exactly had alerted her to the presence of danger.She was fairly sure that she had heard nothing – which made sense, Izzy had informed her later whilst in computer-dork mode, as these particular digimon were reputed to move in absolute silence.Also, there had been no vibration through the ground.Perhaps a subtle change in the quality of darkness, a slight unaccountable movement of air, any one of a number of things could have set Sora's alarm bells ringing, but it so happened that she raised her head sharply on impulse – and saw a large black mass bearing slowly and silently down upon her.It was a mere five feet from her crouching body when her startled brain registered its approach.

Sora shrieked loudly, tumbling backwards in an instinctive effort to escape.The creature hissed in annoyance; now it had lost the element of surprise.It gave a signal with one of its legs – and two more digimon exactly like the first advanced towards her.But Sora was not the soccer team's fastest player for nothing.She leaped to her feet.

"Tai!Matt!" she screamed, half-running half falling down the hill, "Biyomon – digivolve!Hurry!"

Yamato surfaced from an unformed but vaguely disturbing dream to hear screaming.He turned over to try to shut it out, then his brain abruptly shifted into gear and he was suddenly wide awake

.

"Sora?" he muttered quietly to himself, then "SORA!"He leapt to his feet, throwing aside his blanket, pausing just long enough to grab his pants before taking off at a run towards the sound.

"Gabumon!" he yelled at the dog-like digimon who was also beginning to wake up. "It's Sora, she's in trouble!"

"I'm with you, man!" Taichi was hopping from one foot to the other, trying to climb into his shorts. "Agumon, let's go!"At a run, the two boys and their digimon powered to Sora's rescue.When they arrived at the crest of the small hill, they found Birdramon already doing battle, lighting up the sky with her fiery **_Meteor Wing_** attacks, but she didn't seem to be halting the progress of the attackers.

"Oh no – Arachnamon!" the voice was Tentomon's; Izzy joined them a few seconds later, already tapping into Gennai's database to find out more.The news was not good.

"Champion, virus-type, spider digimon with a very tough natural shield which protects it from all fire and ice attacks.Its **_Twining Web_** attack paralyses its victims by binding them with tough, sticky fibre, whilst its **_Poison Spray_** causes a variety of reactions from mild nausea to severe illness, depending on the proximity."Izzy's face was grim."This is not a digimon we can afford to treat lightly.Tentomon, digivolve!"

"How many of them are there?" asked Yamato.Taichi shook his head.

"It's too dark to see." He complained, then turning to his digi-companion, "Hey, Agumon, how about making us a torch, a real big one, huh?"He gestured to a small tree halfway up the hill.

"You got it!" returned Agumon, inhaling hugely, "**_Pepper Breath!_**"The tree immediately burst into flames, illuminating the entire scene and putting a very different complexion on the situation.

"Oh, man!" breathed Yamato in horror.

"Geez!" added Taichi, "Agumon, Gabumon – digivolve, now!"

The whole hilltop seemed to be literally crawling with Arachnamon.The Champion digimon, now joined by Angemon, Gatomon, Ikkakumon and Togemon, were doing furious battle, but it seemed to little avail.

"Matt, I can't see Sora," shouted Taichi to Yamato above the din.Yamato shook his head then a double-take showed him what might have been Sora's lucky hat.He started to move forward, suddenly positive.

"Tai, I've found her!I'm going in.Garurumon, help me." 

**_"Howling Blaster!"_** responded the wolf-like digimon, leaping into the fray with Yamato clinging to his neck.Taichi didn't answer; his attention had been drawn away from Yamato by Izzy who had had an idea.

"Tai, look at the Arachnamon – they don't like the tree Agumon flamed, they're moving away from it all the time.Now, we know they are impervious to fire and ice attacks, what could be the problem with the tree?Also, they took care to attack by night at the darkest time possible.I think they're light-sensitive."

"Yeah, you're right, Izzy, they are moving away!" responded Taichi, "But how's that going to help us get rid of them?"

"Well, where's our nearest source of really bright light?" Izzy asked, and when Taichi shrugged, held up his digivice.Taichi grinned.

"You're on, man.Hey, Joe, Kari, Mimi, TK – over here, and get your digivices ready!"The others ran over to Taichi and Izzy, digivices at the ready.

"I sure hope this works as well as it did on Centarumon," quavered Mimi, "Or I'm going to be getting a really icky new outfit of spider silk!"The five digidestined kids held out their digivices towards the Arachnamon, which obligingly burst into unbearably bright light.An unearthly keening suddenly came from the spider digimon as the light laced through their eight eyes with excruciating agony.They began to retreat, beating the air with their front legs, staggering away from the source of the pain.

"Hey, where's Matt?" shouted Taichi, above the noise.Joe answered.

"He said he'd spotted Sora.He and Garurumon went to rescue her."

"Well, I hope he manages to clear the area before he gets trampled in the rush.These things really do kick ass!" replied Taichi, looking appreciatively at his digivice.

Finally, all the Arachnamon had retreated back over the hill, and in the light of the still burning tree, the digidestined children and their digimon climbed the hill in search of Yamato and Sora.What they found was not encouraging: Garurumon had dedigivolved all the way down to Tsunamon and was lying stunned behind a small boulder.Yokomon was still conscious, but out of her mind with worry as she could not find Sora.Neither was Yamato anywhere to be seen.

"So what do we do now?"Mimi's plaintive question was voiced in the light of the hastily re-kindled fire back at the campsite, "The Arachnamon are sure to have taken Sora and Matt away and tied them up with one of their icky webs.Ugh!How horrible!"

"Mimi, let's not get too graphic about this, okay?" responded Joe in a pained voice, "I'm allergic to spiders, and just talking about cobwebs brings me out in hives."TK raised his head, his expression grim.

"We've got to find them." He stated flatly, "Goodness knows what those creatures are doing to them – I don't even wanna think about it."Kari put out a gentle hand and patted his arm comfortingly.

"We'll get them back, TK."She said with such faith and assurance that the boy looked at her gratefully, "Come on: we've never run out on each other, have we?Let's get some rest.We'll have fresh thoughts in the morning, and maybe we can come up with some sort of a plan.Let's sleep on it."Izzy stirred from where he had been tapping furiously into his laptop for the past half hour.

"Got it!" he announced, triumphantly and turned towards the group in excitement.

"What's that, Izzy?" Taichi raised his head from his arms.

"I know where the Arachnamon have taken Sora and Matt!You see, bearing in mind that they cannot bear light and therefore are unlikely to be out in the open during daylight hours, they must be holed up somewhere underground.I have analysed the geology of the surrounding area, taking into account that they must be able to reach their shelter before sunrise, and there is only one possible place they can be."He pointed towards his laptop.Everybody gathered round the small screen and peered at the map.Obligingly, Izzy zoomed in on the place.

"It's about five kilometres away as the crow flies.The terrain's not that good, though: it'll take us quite a while."

"What is it, Izzy?" asked Taichi, squinting in puzzlement at the screen.

"It's an extinct volcano." replied Izzy, "An absolutely perfect refuge for light-hating Arachnamon."

The set out as soon as it was light.Only Taichi managed to grab another half-hour's sleep, the rest simply sat around the fire and talked in low tones.Taichi awoke as soon as it was light enough to see and after a hasty breakfast of fruit gathered the previous day, the digidestined left their campsite and started to trudge north, following Izzy's directions.The ground soon became harder on the feet and more difficult to negotiate.Eventually, they climbed into the foothills of the volcano itself, and the going was a lot slower.During a brief pause to catch their breath, Joe gazed into the sun, squinting, trying to assess the lie of the land higher up.

"You know, guys," he commented, "I don't believe we're going to find much in the way of food up there – it looks pretty barren – and I imagine the water situation isn't very much better."

"Don't worry about water, Joe," said Izzy, consulting his computer map, "There's a freshwater spring halfway up – it might taste a little sulphurous, but it's drinkable.You've got a point about the food though."Takeru spoke up.

"If Yokomon could digivolve to Biyomon, we could gather some food today, leave it here hidden in a blanket and send Biyomon down to pick it up for us once we had climbed the mountain."

"That's a really good idea, TK," said Yokomon, sadly, "But I'm afraid I can't digivolve without Sora – not even as far as Biyomon."

"But _I_ still have my wings!" exclaimed Tentomon, "And if necessary, I can digivolve to Kabuterimon should the load be too great for me to carry."

"That's a great idea, TK!" said Taichi, his face splitting into a huge grin for the first time since the Arachnamon had kidnapped Sora and Matt."Hey, everybody, we could do with a break from walking.Let's see what we can find around here to eat."

Taichi found a tree virtually full of apples and spent a good half hour picking enough to last several days.Gomamon, with his almost infallible affinity for water, discovered a tiny pool, little more than a puddle, but from which he managed to produce enough fish for their supper.Mimi and TK unearthed a mass of what looked like tree roots, but which proved surprisingly tasty, something like a cross between a radish and a potato, which they roasted in the ashes of their fire for the evening meal.They left most of the apples and the rest of the raw tubers wrapped in a blanket for Tentomon to retrieve when they had reached a place to sleep, hopefully near the heart of the volcano.

"The Arachnamon must be inhabiting a cave somewhere in the side of the volcano." said Izzy, confidently."We should be careful we don't come upon them by accident."Almost as soon as he had said this, the children noticed that the going was getting considerably easier; in fact, they appeared to be travelling on what looked like a road.Joe didn't like this at all.

"Tai, don't you think we oughta be getting undercover or something." He said worriedly.Taichi gave him an irritated look.

"Joe, where do you think we can get undercover here?Under the rocks?Up in the sky?Get real, man, we got no choice but to take this road."Joe nodded unwillingly.

"Yeah, yeah, but we have to find somewhere safe to sleep – we're all of us tired, Tai, TK's almost asleep on his feet.There's just no way we're gonna tackle the Arachnamon tonight.Besides, the digimon need to sleep and to eat too, otherwise we might just as well knock on the door and say 'Hey, Mr. Spider, sir, me and my friends, we just thought you might like to take us prisoner too, so we'll just walk in, shall we?"It wasn't very funny, and Joe didn't mean it to be; he meant to shame Taichi into allowing them to rest and sleep through the night.Izzy murmured into a mutinous Taichi's ear:

"We'd better find somewhere to sleep soon because there's no way we can carry on walking this path in the dark: we'd end up pitching headfirst back to our old campsite, Tai – and I don't think the experience would be very comfortable."Taichi gave in.

"Okay, everyone," he sighed, for once allowing his own fatigue to show, "Let's find somewhere safe to rest – and I don't mean in the trees, Tentomon!"

"No, Tai," protested the bug digimon, hovering at eye level, "That's not what I meant.I merely thought I could see a cave of some sort behind that ledge above us.I'll go look, shall I?"Without waiting for confirmation, the bug digimon flew upwards to land lightly on the ledge above.

"If the ledge offers adequate shelter, it would be a very advantageous place to bivouac." Announced Izzy, looking up from his laptop."The spring I was telling you about is very near to it."Seconds later, Tentomon returned.

"Tai, Izzy," he said in a choked voice, "I really think you need to see this."With Palmon's help, the two boys climbed up to the ledge, Taichi extending a hand to Izzy as he reached the top first.They both lay panting on the ground, catching their breath.

"This had better be worth it," muttered Taichi, "Or when we get home, I'll be taking a can of bug spray to that six-legged jerk!"They got to their feet and moved quietly over to the cave.Tentomon led them down into its depths, making no sound except a faint whirring of wings and cautioning the boys to be as quiet as possible.No one saw the faint flash of white as Gatomon, silently and without permission, followed them into the cave.Increasingly, they became aware of a faint light in the distance that gradually resolved itself into a rough circle.

"It's a sort of – window." muttered Taichi, "Wonder what the light is?"He soon found out.

"Oh, wow!" breathed Izzy, staring in fascinated horror.

"Geez!" whispered Taichi, unable to tear his eyes away, "Oh, man - we're dead!"


	3. Chapter Three - Captivity

**_Malfunction?_**

## Chapter Three - Captivity

Sora slowly came to.The first thing to hit her was a blinding headache so intense she vomited automatically.Fortunately, her stomach was virtually empty and after some dry retching which made her headache all the more intense, she relapsed back into merciful oblivion.

Some time later, she once more returned to consciousness.The headache was still there, the urge to heave still strong, so she lay perfectly still, focussing on the darkness around her, and willed the headache to lessen.Presently, she could make out walls, a floor and a ceiling in a peculiar sickly grey light that, whilst it gave information, cast no shadows and illuminated nothing.She started to sit up, but sank back blinded by the sudden recurrence of her headache.After a few moments' concentration, she tried again and managed to achieve a sitting posture without throwing up.As her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, she surveyed the scene.She was surely in some kind of prison cell.There were walls, a floor covered in some kind of matting, and, she presumed, a ceiling because the light stopped there.There was no window and apparently no door, a fact that bore further examination.She sighed, and rose to her feet.Her shoe brushed against something hollow that rang: she investigated to find a metal bucket full of water.Sora suddenly became aware of a raging thirst, but did not let need totally overcome discretion.She carefully dipped a finger into the bucket – so far so good.She scooped a handful out and smelled it carefully.Again, it seemed harmless.She shrugged: if she didn't drink soon she would die of thirst.Better to die of poison, if it was poison, quickly than a slow lingering death by dehydration.She sank a good quarter of the water before pausing.

She became alerted to that fact that she was not alone by a gentle sigh followed by some movement on the matting.She stopped drinking and whirled around, wincing at the pain in her head.There was someone else there!Carefully, on all fours, she followed the sound.

"Matt!Oh, Matt!" she wailed, "How in digiworld did you get here?"At the sound of his name, the blonde boy opened his eyes.

"Sora, I found you – oh …" His face twisted as his stomach muscles rebelled.Sora quickly levered him into a sitting position and angled his head into a corner of the cell.Matt violently threw up his stomach contents, and when they were gone carried on retching dryly until he was exhausted.Sora gently lowered his upper body back on to the matting and listened until his regular breathing told her he was asleep.She sat back and kept watch over him, worried that his illness might be worse than hers.

Unaware that she had dozed off, Sora awoke to sounds of distress from Matt.He was still asleep, but beads of sweat were pouring from his face and body, and he was twisting and muttering in his sleep.

"Cold … cold… " He murmured.Sora looked about for something to cover him and, finding nothing, saw no other option but to lie down beside him and keep him from freezing by the warmth of her body.She sighed: it was just as well Taichi would never hear of this as he was always ready to swing at Matt for whatever reason, but there really seemed to be no choice.Matt tossed and turned for a good while longer until finally his fever broke and he sank into an easier sleep.Sora was unaware of this: she had passed into the oblivion of the truly exhausted several hours before.

Yamato woke suddenly, all in one instant, with a pounding headache and a raging thirst.He tried to sit up, but became aware of another body close to his, shielding him with their arms.Sora stirred and turned over on her back, stretching her arms, and opened her wide blue eyes.

"Matt!You're okay! Oh, thank God."Yamato smiled.

"I seem to be in one piece – thanks to you, I guess."She smiled wryly at the unspoken question in his voice, and blushed faintly.

"One moment you were burning up, the next you were icy-cold and shivering. It was the only thing I could think of."She stood up, suddenly restless, and paced around in a circle, "I was ill too, Matt, I still don't feel right.What do you think it is?"Yamato tried to sit up.

"I'll think about that later – right now what I really need is some water."Sora smiled.

"You're in luck – they left us a bucket of the stuff.And it's clean too!"She dragged the heavy metal bucket over to him and scooped up handfuls for him to drink.When he had slaked his immediate thirst, he sank back onto the matting, weak and gasping.Sora soaked her handkerchief and bathed his forehead.Yamato gradually regained his breath.

"My guess is that these Arachnamon not only have a kind of sticky web, they have a poison attack as well.Perhaps we were lucky – it may be deadly if you get enough of it." He said.

"Arachnamon."Sora pondered on the name, "A spider digimon, with a lethal sting.Matt," she looked towards him in the pale light, "Why didn't they kill us?Why did they give us only enough poison to make us sick?Does this mean that they want us alive for some reason?"Yamato nodded slowly.

"I think that's probably fair comment, Sora," he replied, "And I guess we're about to find out who it is that wants us alive right now!"A scrabbling from somewhere outside their cell was getting louder and finally stopped.There was a swishing sound and something entered their prison through what appeared to be a wall of spider silk.Sora shrank back against Yamato in fear, and he started to get to his feet, but neither of them had any opportunity to protest or struggle as each was seized and bound tightly in sticky spider strands.After trying to burst his bonds, and achieving nothing except to make the subsiding ache in his head rise back into agony, Yamato accepted the inevitable and lay passive while he was carried, reasonably gently, wherever his unseen enemy wanted to take him.

"I've never seen anything like this!" whispered Izzy, absolutely goggle-eyed, "I never imagined they'd be so well organised – or so numerous!"Taichi punched the wall in frustration.

"How're we supposed to deal with something the size of this with five puny little digivices – it just isn't possible!"He sat down heavily on the rocky floor and put his head in his hands.

"Sora! Matt!" he cried, close to tears, "I want to help you – but I can't see how!There's nothing I can do against such an enemy except go in heroically and get creamed.I can't do that to the others, I just can't!"Izzy took another long look at the scene through the window.

It was the sheer size of the place that had freaked them out as much as anything.Izzy and Taichi had been expecting to find a largish cave, perhaps with a small series of passages leading deeper into the volcano itself.What they found was that the whole of the mountain was hollow – and was swarming with Arachnamon.There they were, thousands of them, each going about its own business in an eerie, unnatural silence, bathed in a sickly green light that cast no shadows, and illuminated nothing.Gatomon slid noiselessly away and returned to her digi-companion as invisibly as she had left.Izzy bit his lip thoughtfully, then tore his eyes away from the scene and started to tap at his computer keyboard.Almost oblivious of Taichi's for once silent presence, Izzy accessed a little-used programme, which Gennai had downloaded onto his laptop.

"Bingo!" he said softly with a grim smile.Then he looked round for Taichi.

"Hey, get up!" he said, putting his hand on Taichi's shoulder.The dark-haired boy raised his face, not bothering to hide the tears coursing down his cheeks.

"It's all my fault." He moaned, "I didn't realise what Matt was trying to do in the battle, I didn't think to make sure Sora had a companion on watch – I knew Biyomon was beat from yesterday's journey.Why didn't I take precautions?"Izzy patted Taichi's shoulder uncomfortably.

"Tai, the blame isn't all yours, you know.I was on watch before Sora.If _I'd_ only thought to find someone to share her shift when I went back to camp, perhaps she'd still be here, and Matt too, but it's by no means certain either way."_And I would have done so if I hadn't been so jolted by my behaviour on the hilltop – what in digiworld possessed me to kiss Sora?She's one of my best friends, for heaven's sake, and she's also Taichi's girlfriend.She didn't exactly struggle though ..._Izzy signed deeply and shook his head, dismissing that train of thought.Then, returning to the present, he shook Taichi's shoulder.

"Look, Tai, we've got to get back to the others.I suggest we don't tell them about this – or at least not too much, is that clear, Tentomon? – and I also suggest that this cave would provide adequate shelter for the hours of darkness, just so long as none of us gets inquisitive about the window at the back.Tentomon, could you contrive to cover it with a blanket?And when you're through, I think it's time you retrieved the supplies of food from the bottom of the hill, don't you?" _Tai's not functioning properly, _thought Izzy, _The least I can do to make up for my part in this is to try to bring him back to his leadership skills._With Tentomon safely occupied, Izzy bullied Taichi into some semblance of normality and together, with Palmon's help, they gathered the exhausted digidestined and their digimon in the newly discovered cave.The group was tired and subdued with only enough energy to eat some of the food Tentomon had retrieved and roll into their blankets before sinking into oblivion.TK had fallen asleep over his apple, and no one noticed until Mimi turned in and mistakenly used him for a pillow.

Only Taichi and Izzy remained awake, Izzy to perfect his use of the new programme, Taichi because he had taken first watch and also because he was still knee-deep in his own guilt trip.Finally, Izzy turned his attention away from the little screen with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Prodigious!" he whispered to himself, "I've found them!"

Sora was in extreme discomfort.The Arachnamon had bound her, very securely from head to foot, catching one arm in a very awkward position, and now as the sticky stuff hardened, it was almost impossible to move at all in any direction.Also, her headache had returned with a vengeance, although mercifully not the sickness or she would have been in danger of suffocating.She wondered how Yamato was faring – he seemed to have taken a bigger dose of the poison than she had and she was worried he would relapse back into sickness.She could hear very little, see nothing at all, and feel only the chafing of the spider silk._Silk?_ She found herself thinking, _why's it called silk?It's as rough as sackcloth against my skin.It's really hurting the bruises and scrapes I got from falling down the hill._Once again, she feared for Yamato whose physical hurts she had not even had time to register before they were hustled unceremoniously away.The journey seemed to go on for a long time.Eventually, she became aware of their captors slowing down their pace, then she was tossed into a corner and the spider silk roughly ripped away.Sora shrieked at the pain and fell face down on the rough floor.She lay there winded while another body, presumably Yamato, was thrown down and unwrapped in the same careless manner.He grunted once in discomfort, but otherwise remained silent.Then came a voice that caused the hairs on the backs of their necks to rise, and their stomachs to clutch in dismay.It was a voice utterly devoid of any compassion or pity, a voice completely at odds with everything they stood for, and at home in the hidden depths of evil and darkness, a voice totally malevolent, and, worse still, a voice the two digidestined children recognised at once - and that they had hoped and presumed never to hear again.

"It is an unexpected pleasure to receive you into my temporary headquarters, so soon after you destroyed my castle.Unexpected, but not unwelcome.I hope you will find your stay here brief but uncomfortable."

"Devimon?" muttered Yamato, in disbelief.He turned over with an effort, raised himself onto all fours and lifted his eyes towards the source of the voice. 

"Devimon?" he queried, uncertainly through his pain."I thought Angemon whipped your butt the last time we met."The words froze on his lips as he took in the full extent of the situation.It was indeed Devimon – the bat-like shape, the evil intelligence in the eyes, the oily malevolence in the voice – and yet it wasn't.This Devimon was not black; he was silver.He was covered from head to foot in an indestructible metal casing, even his face, his formerly torn and tattered wings were some sort of bright, flexible light alloy, and he bristled with confidence and new weapons.The evil digimon smiled, although his eyes glittered dangerously at the mention of his bitterest enemy.

"That's what you all thought, you poor fools.However, no ultimate digimon with any intelligence goes into a contest of strength without backup, and I made sure that I had every angle covered.Angemon destroyed himself fighting me, but I lived to fight another day, even stronger than I was then."He drew himself up so that his immense form looked even taller and more terrifying."I digivolved.No one thought it could be done, but I found a way.I am now indestructible, I am invincible, I am Metaldevimon!"Yamato sank back down to the floor in weakness.

"Backup?Do you mean you actually stored a copy of yourself somewhere against the possibility that you might lose to Angemon?"This question was asked by Sora who was by now sitting up.Metaldevimon laughed.

"That's exactly what I did.Of course, none of your ridiculous excuses for digimon would even consider taking such an elementary precaution.Your precious Angemon failed to do it.It took me a while to become activated again, but that was all to the good.It appears you have become careless and lax while you believed you had defeated me.Good.That will make the others all the easier to capture, and when I have you all…" he smiled evilly, "Then I shall exact my revenge."

"Do you really think Tai and the others are just going to walk in here and let you capture them?" this was Yamato speaking, "They may not know about you, but they certainly aren't going to underestimate the Arachnamon.There's no way they're going to let you get all of us."Metaldevimon gave a particularly nasty smile.

"Oh but they will, my foolish digidestined." He pronounced with satisfaction, "Oh yes they will, because you are the bait.You two alone will provide the lure for the rest of the cursed children to enter my lair here – already they are on the mountain, and the one who bears the Crest of Knowledge has found your location.They know they cannot save this world or their own without you both, soon they will come in search of you.They will enter the labyrinth in the hope of rescuing you, and once they are far enough into my stronghold that they cannot easily retreat, my minions will seize and capture them as easily as they did you.That is the only reason you are still alive now – had you not wondered why you were only taken prisoner and not killed immediately?I want my revenge on all of you, do you hear?And particularly on the smallest child – the one who foiled me the first time.He will die slowly."

"No!" screamed Yamato, leaping to his feet, a greater agony in his heart than the one in his body, "No, Metaldevimon, you leave TK alone, do you hear?Don't you dare go near my brother, if you know what's good for you!"Metaldevimon frowned mightily.

"How dare you threaten me!" he thundered, "You, who are weak and helpless here without your digimon; you, who have no weapons even to fight the weakest of my servants; you, who are still alive merely because it is necessary for your vital signs to draw the others to you.Do you tempt my anger?Your imprisonment here will be brief – do you wish me to make it even more uncomfortable?"And with that, Metaldevimon drew his hand back and released a flash of dark lightening, which forked into two and exploded against Yamato and Sora, slamming them back against the floor.Not quite unconscious, they both groaned in anguish.Metaldevimon turned on his heel and left the cell, his servants sealing up the webbing that served as a door behind him.


	4. Chapter Four - Crossing Boundaries

**_Malfunction?_**

# Chapter Four – Crossing Boundaries

As soon as it was light, Taichi quietly roused the others and told them to eat as much of the food left from the previous evening as they could. 

"We won't get anything more to eat until we've rescued Matt and Sora, so eat all you can and put the rest in your pockets in case you get hungry later."What they could not carry, they covered in a blanket and stowed in the corner of the cave.

When all the digidestined were standing expectant, ready to move out, Taichi stood up and faced them.Despite the urgency of the situation, he paused before beginning.They could see the strain this particular adventure was putting upon him: he looked tired and drawn, there were black circles under his eyes and he lacked his usual hyperactive bounce.

"I have to tell ya, this one isn't gonna be easy."He began. "Izzy and I have been up half the night talking about it.Izzy's found one of Gennai's programmes which is helpful, but it's not going to rescue Matt and Sora for us; we've got to do that ourselves, and it's going to take everything we've got.I tell ya, these digimon are no pushovers, and we can't expect to get out without digivolving to ultimate!" The others looked round at each other in dismay.For Taichi to be so serious, so lacking in his "attack first, ask questions later" strategy, this had to be bad – very bad.

"I'll leave Izzy to explain his plan of attack to you all – in this area, he's the leader now – but before we go any further, those of you who weren't totally zonked last night may have wondered why Tentomon hung a blanket at the back of the cave.Well, I think you'd better come over and see just what we're up against".Silently, the others followed Taichi to the back of the cave and, with a small sigh, he pulled the blanket away.There was a long pause.

"That's it – I'm outta here!" announced Joe, backing away from the window.

"There are millions of them!Ick!" squeaked Mimi, her hands to her face.TK could only stare in fascinated horror, and of the four only Kari remained relatively composed.Gatomon stayed at a distance, expressionlessly manicuring her claws, but the other digimon crowded around the window.

"Now, just calm down, Joe." began Izzy.

"Are you kidding?" Joe was practically freaking out. "Quite apart from the fact that I'm allergic to anything with more than four legs, even when it's small – and these are definitely large – we don't stand a chance in there.We might just as well tie ourselves up on the doorstep and ring the bell.I tell you there is no way we are going to get within several miles of Matt and Sora – always assuming that they're somewhere in that crawling anthill."

"Joe, ants are insects, spiders are arachnids." continued Izzy patiently, "And Sora and Matt are definitely in there, I would stake my life on it.Now just stop panicking, sit down and listen to my plan."He put his hands on Joe's shoulders and apparently effortlessly, forced the older boy to sit down.Dumbfounded, Joe obeyed; the others followed suit.

"Have you found Sora yet?" piped Yokomon wistfully.The limpid blue eyes of the small pink creature, who resembled nothing so much as an oversized radish, were shadowed with worry.Izzy smiled at her.

"Yes, Yokomon, I have." He replied simply, "And, Tsunomon, Matt is with her."The single-horned in-training digimon jerked to attention.

"I am very pleased to hear of your achievement," He replied formally, "And I will be greatly relieved to be with Matt again very soon."Izzy held up his right hand.

"Woah!Let's not go at this thing straight off without even thinking about it.There are a large number of potentially very dangerous situations between our friends and us, so we had better make sure we know the problems in advance and have adequate strategies for dealing with them.Okay?"The children and their digimon all nodded solemnly: Izzy had their complete attention.He began to speak.

Yamato started to turn over and groaned loudly._Man, I ache in places I didn't know I had places!_ He thought through the agony.He began to turn over again, this time a little more carefully, and made it on to his back without too much extra pain.He rested for a short while, then cautiously tried sitting up.He made it, but the room began to spin almost immediately.Yamato gritted his teeth and rode out the resulting nausea and dizziness until his head seemed to have returned to normal.It was a little hard to tell what was normal and what was not as this cell appeared to be even darker than the previous one.

"Man, if it weren't for gravity, I'd find it hard to decide which way is up!" 

"I know.I think where we were before was fairly near the outside world.Now I think we're quite some ways into the ground, or below it, or something.At any rate, there's even less light here."Yamato hadn't really been aware that he had spoken out loud, but he greeted Sora's reply with intense relief.

"You're okay – thank goodness!Metaldevimon's parting shot must have put paid to at least seven of my nine lives.I was afraid we would both be badly hurt."Sora shook her head in the darkness.

"I blacked out for a while, but coming to wasn't nearly as bad as after the spider poison."Yamato was silent for a moment, then as his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he said in a thoughtful voice:

"Sora, what is our prison made of?"Sora chuckled weakly.

"I'm way ahead of you, Matt," she replied, grimly, "I've been awake for a while.Our cell is made almost entirely of spider web – thick, coarse stuff, which feels like basketweave or woven rope.The walls are made of it, the ceiling is made of it – even the floor appears to be made of it."

"What about the door?"

"There is no door, Matt; the Arachnamon merely tear some of the fibre apart to get in, then mend it with new stuff when they go out.I've tried to tear it or unravel it myself – no use."Yamato rose carefully to his feet.He tested his legs – they seemed to work – his head stayed on his shoulders.As far as his general health was concerned, that was all he could say on the positive side; he felt absolutely lousy.However, he could function, that was what mattered.He walked over to the nearest wall and put out a hand.Hmmm, the stuff was pretty rough to the touch.He tried to use his fingers to separate out a strand from the others.

"Hey, ouch!" he whipped his hand away, automatically putting his thumb and index finger to his mouth.Sora smiled, grimly – he could see her now faintly in the gloom.

"I could have warned you, if you'd asked." She said, "I tried that too, with the same result."She was standing by him now, pulling the injured hand away from his mouth and examining it.

"Hmm," she said, bending her head close to try to see better, "Just superficial scratches, fortunately."She looked up, still holding his hand."I rubbed all the skin from my hand just trying to shift some of the fibres."She held up her own hand.Yamato caught hold of it to examine the injury and suddenly noticed a warm red glow emanating from the girl.

"Hey, Sora, your Crest is glowing." She looked down in puzzlement.

"It did that out of the blue last night, for no apparent purpose.I wonder if it's trying to tell me something, warn me …" She trailed off.Yamato was still holding her hand, but he was staring straight into her eyes with an expression she did not understand.The rosy light of the Crest of Love illuminated Sora's pretty face, hiding the injuries of the past two days and giving her a gentle radiance.Yamato, as if hypnotised, began to draw her closer.

"You're beautiful, really – beautiful."He murmured, stroking her hair.Sora couldn't believe this; she simply couldn't take it in.Here they were in the middle of an enemy stronghold, bait for the rest of their friends, with certain death awaiting them once the rest were captured, and Yamato was freaking out on her.

"Matt, please …mmm!"His mouth sought out hers with a strength and passion quite at odds with his usual laid-back persona, and his arms moved slowly around her waist until he was running his fingers gently up and down her spine.Sora was at first rigid with shock, then, try as she might, she found she could not end the contact and was, in fact, responding with no faint emotion herself.Matt's mouth was like quicksilver, soft and sensitive, teasing her lips into a frenzy as his hands stroked her body with equal effect.She quivered then opened her mouth to receive the gentle caress of his tongue, her arms snaked around his neck and she buried her fingers in his chaotic blond hair, so smooth and silky to her touch.

"Sora." breathed Matt, harshly as he released her lips to trail his own lightly down her throat.

"Oh, Matt!" she murmured.She shivered involuntarily and closed her eyes to focus more intensely on the incredible sensations he was producing in her nervous system.Abruptly, he sank to his knees, drawing her down with him.His hands were beneath her teeshirt, drawing little tingling circles on the skin of her back.His fingers reached the fastening of her bra and seemingly with no pause in his attentions, it was suddenly loose and he was caressing her bare shoulders.Sora seemed to lose her balance because of something Matt did, and found herself being held and lowered towards the rough floor.She scarcely registered his hands gently unfastening her clothes, through the all-encompassing flood of arousal.The Crest of Love glowed steadily, bathing the two overwhelmed by their passion, in its glorious radiance.

"Now, is everybody absolutely clear what we're up against?"Humans and digimon nodded solemnly.Izzy sat back on his heels away from the diagrams he had been drawing in the dust of the cave's floor to make his explanations clearer.

"Okay," he concluded, "Now, just one more thing."Taichi sighed in exasperation.

"Why is it that I want to throw up every time you say 'just one more thing'?"Izzy ignored him.

"Gennai's programme is very accurate, and I will be updating our information every inch of the way, but it can only provide us with information, not protection.It can track our friends and pinpoint their position to within a few inches, it can warn us about booby traps, sentries, enemy digimon, but it can only give us information on things we expect to be there and are asking it to search for."He stopped speaking and looked towards Taichi for verification.The older boy nodded in agreement.

"Izzy and I have gone through every possible trap or potential enemy attack that we could think of, and we've been up half the night checking and re-checking, but ultimately it's not enough.We've got to be vigilant, take no chances and above all **follow instructions**, or we're dead - and Sora and Matt with us."A short silence followed this chilly speech, then as one the humans and their digimon rose from the ground, dusted themselves off and prepared to move out on the most dangerous mission they had yet embarked upon.

Once through the window, Taichi, of course, took the lead with Izzy by his side, checking and re-checking Gennai's programme for any updated information as they went.Kari and Mimi walked together just behind them, and TK and Joe brought up the rear.Yokomon and Tsunamon had struggled valiantly and without complaint throughout the journey so far, but once the group realised how entirely without light the Arachnamon's stronghold was – except for that strange sickly phosphorescence – Taichi had detailed Mimi and Kari to carry them.Mimi, for once, made no complaint about Yokomon's extra weight and was strangely subdued, as though the atmosphere of the place was really getting to her.

For it was a curiously eerie experience to be walking these strange corridors.To begin with, they made very little sound - just a faint scrabbling on the fibrous floor, the occasional sound of breathing, and the whirring of Tentomon's wings.Every so often Taichi would look questioningly at Izzy to receive a thumbs-up gesture.So far, so good.Izzy was following a route plotted by Gennai's programme towards two pulsing specks of light in the top right hand corner of the screen.As they drew closer to the specks, Izzy zoomed in, obtaining more detail of the route and revealing a great deal more about their surroundings than mere eyesight could provide in the semi-darkness.The trudging on seemed endless, their surroundings unchanging, and they hardly seemed to care when Taichi called a halt for a rest, they were so hypnotised by the never-ending hike.Izzy sat down closely next to Taichi and murmured quietly in his ear.

"I don't like the smell of this, Tai.We've passed three places where, according to Gennai's programme, there should have been problems: a booby trap, a sentry and a deep pit.We've encountered none of those things because they seem to have mysteriously disappeared just before we stumbled upon them.Even the pit was suddenly covered by this thick, fibrous matting stuff – I know it was there because it registered on the programme; it just wasn't a danger to us any more."Taichi considered.

"You think – they're on to us?You think the Arachnamon expected us to come looking for Sora and Matt, and now they're – how would you put it? – luring us into some kind of trap by making things easy for us?"

"Something like that." Affirmed Izzy.The older boy shook his head.

"It doesn't make sense, Izzy.Why take Sora and Matt in the first place?Why keep them alive at all?"

"No reason - unless they're being used as bait for the rest of us.Remember, it's their vital signs that we're tracking: if they were dead, we would have no reason to enter here – except perhaps to recover their bodies.It all fits, Tai, like a hand in a glove.We're being set up!"There was a long pause.

"What else can we do but walk into the trap?" asked Taichi, at length, "We can't turn tail and run just because we suspect we're being set up, and even if you're right and they're deliberately making the way easy for us, it's still the only way to where they're holding Sora and Matt."Izzy was nodding.

"Exactly.We're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't."Taichi sat a while in thought then he turned decisively to Izzy.

"We go on," he said, authoritatively, "And we don't tell any of the others about this.Okay?"Izzy hesitated fractionally then nodded in agreement.

"Okay, Tai, I'll keep it to myself."Neither noticed a glimmer of white as the cat digimon slipped thoughtfully back through the darkness to her mistress.

Taichi looked at his watch – twenty minutes had gone by since they had stopped to rest; that was barely enough, even under the present circumstances.Well, it would have to do.

"Okay, let's get moving." He called, quietly, amid a chorus of soft groans.

"Hey, prodigious!" an excited exclamation from Izzy caused Taichi to break off bullying the others to get started and turn to the redhead.Izzy looked up, a grin spread across his face.

"We're within range for the digivices." He explained, typing furiously, "I think I can contact them if I just … there!"

An insistent beeping finally penetrated through Sora's mist-filled mind.She was drowning, drowning in desire for Matt, with Matt, everything was Matt, the longing was urgent, she needed him to go on, on, just a little more, his hands… wait a minute.Still with her lips glued to his, Sora reached to the pocket of her jeans for her digivice.

"Matt, Matt!" she came up for air and started to push him away, "Matt!It's my digivice; it's beeping.It must be the others trying to contact us.Matt!!Please, listen to me!"Finally, she pushed him so hard he fell away from her and she was able to scramble to her feet, frantically straightening her clothes, trying to restore some semblance of normality.

"Sora?" came Izzy's voice, uncertainly, "Sora? Are you there?Please answer."

"Izzy!Oh, Izzy!You've found us.Thank God!"

"There's a lot of interference – you're very muffled, and you keep breaking up."

"You're as clear as daylight – if I can remember what that's like.Where are you?"

"We're coming to get you and Matt, Sora.We'll be with you as soon as we can, within the next few hours.Just hold on."

"Izzy, there's something you've got to know.We're all in great danger.We thought Angemon had killed him, but it seems he'd backed himself up before the battle …"

"Sorry, you're breaking up, I can't hear you … Sora? Sora?"The line went dead.

"Izzy?Izzy, it's Devimon, he's come back …" Sora shook the digivice then sighed in frustration.

"I didn't get through!Oh, I hope he makes contact again, we've just got to tell them about Metaldevimon!"She gazed hopelessly in Matt's direction, only to notice him staring at something.

"Your Crest," he said, "It's – losing its glow."Indeed, the Crest of Love was pulsing feebly and finally went out as Sora examined it.Suddenly, her cheeks flamed just as brightly as her crest as the full force of what she and Matt had nearly been doing hit her.

"Matt, what have we …" He swung angrily away from her.

"I don't want to talk about it, right?"

"But Matt, I think we should …"

"Just leave it, okay?" his face was as red as hers, but with fury as well as embarrassment. "Just forget it happened – I don't want to know."He turned on his heel and found the farthest corner of the cell to sit in.It was at least an hour before Sora could decide what to do.


	5. Chapter Five - Decisions and Discoveries

**_Malfunction?_**

# Chapter Five – Decisions and Discoveries

"I've lost them, damnit!" this was as close as Izzy ever got to bad language, "Still, at least we know they're alive."

"Correction." Argued Joe, "At least we know Sora's alive – I didn't hear anything about Matt in that conversation."

"We just have to assume he's okay, Joe," Izzy explained patiently, "Otherwise the future of both our worlds is finished.Still, at least I managed to reassure Sora, despite the shortness of the connection."

"Yeah, just why did the connection break down?" demanded Taichi, "I thought these things were reliable, and now we find they're behaving like cell phones."Izzy scratched his head.

"That's a very good point, Tai, and not one I can answer at the moment." He said, thoughtfully, "The digivices only work partly on geographical proximity, the rest is due to the connection between them and between us.Simply put, we should either be able to talk to Sora and Matt clearly and with no interference, or not at all."Taichi raised a speculative eyebrow but refrained from comment, and in fact changed the subject by calling everyone to move off.Once the humans and their digimon companions were on the move once again, Izzy sidled unobtrusively up to Taichi again and started to talk in low tones.

"The more I think about that broken connection, the less I like it." He began.Taichi agreed.

"Yeah, I picked that up, that's why I didn't say anything.Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"Izzy nodded.

"Another nail in the coffin." He confirmed, "Someone is tracking us, Tai, and they're removing the obstacles to make absolutely certain that we reach Matt and Sora.And just to make things interesting, they're making very sure that we don't communicate in the interim.Now, just what do Sora and Matt know that is so important that the enemy has to show their hand by jamming our digivices, huh?And more to the point, Tai, **who** is taking such a deal of trouble to herd us into this hell-hole in the first place?"Taichi frowned.

"Not the Arachnamon?" Izzy shook his head slowly. 

"I think they're just servants, soldiers, slaves – call them what you like.I don't think they're masterminding this.No, whoever took Matt and Sora prisoner will not be satisfied with the mere destruction of two worlds, otherwise he would have killed them already.He wants all of us, every one.That makes it personal - and I find that extremely interesting.Tai, this scam has a very familiar smell to it; I can't quite identify it yet, but give me time."Taichi ran an exasperated hand through his hair.

"That's all very well, Izzy, but we don't **have **time!We've no water and precious little food, and I don't see a whole lot of snack bars or even an eensy hot dog stand here.That means we've got to go straight for it: just find Sora and Matt and blast our way out.And we can't take too long doing it, or the digimon'll be too tired to digivolve!"

"I know, Tai, I know."Izzy leaned his head momentarily in his hands, "Okay, I'll keep you posted."

Yamato looked up at a slight change in the quality of the darkness and frowned at Sora standing over him.

"Go away." He spat, turning round.She sat down next to him, close but not touching.

"Matt, we have to talk."

"That's all girls ever want to do – yack, yack, yack – it drives me nuts!"

"That may be so, but if we're going to get out of this alive, we have to work together, and we can't do that while you're sitting on the floor sulking and NOT LISTENING TO ME, MATT!"On the last words, Sora grabbed the blonde boy by his shoulders and forced him to turn and look her in the face.

"Whatever happened here is not relevant to our present situation." She began, slowly and distinctly, "We don't need to handle it now, we don't have the time or the emotional stability to tackle it – so we won't.What we have to do now, Matt, is to work together to try to get us, and the others, out of here.We're imprisoned in this small cell which doesn't give us much of a chance, but what little we can do, we must – it could mean the difference between success and failure, between life and death."Sora's eyes were almost boring into Yamato's skull with the intensity of her determination.Yamato resisted briefly, then nodded curtly in acceptance.

"And that means full co-operation, Matt; no half-measures or holding back because of injured pride or anything else.Okay?"

"Whatever!" the blonde boy, waved a negligent hand, but Sora was confident; she had made her point.She sat down beside him, ignoring his blatant movement away from her.

"Okay," she began, "Now, we don't know our location, and the only way we're going to find that out is by raising the others on the digivice."

"I've been trying for the last half hour." Admitted Yamato with chagrin, "No luck."

"Hmm." Sora frowned, "Matt, in all the time we've been using the digivices for communication, have you ever known them break down?"Yamato shook his head.

"No, I haven't.And come to think of it, I've never known the signal break up like that either."He pursed his lips in concentration. "Sora, did the signal break up at your end at all?"

"No, Matt, Izzy was perfectly clear to me.Apparently, it was my signal which was failing to reach him."

"Now that's weird."Matt stood up and started to pace back and forth. "These things don't work like cell phones – they don't depend upon broadcasting stations to receive their signals: at least that's how Izzy explained it to me."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that the only way the signal could fail like that is by interference from another source – and there aren't any other sources in digiworld – at least not natural ones anyhow."Sora' eyes were wide.

"Are you saying that this was deliberate?That someone is preventing us from being in contact with the others?"Yamato nodded slowly.

"That's the only reason I can come up with for the digivices failing."He sat down again and pulled at his lower lip in concentration.

"I guess it's got to be Metaldevimon." He said at last. "He doesn't want the other to know he's alive until they reach us – a nice little surprise for them, I guess.In that case, we can't expect to contact them via the digivices at all."Sora nodded, then grimaced.

"So we have no way of fixing our location?" Yamato shook his head.

"Doesn't seem likely.Okay, then let's try another tack." He pondered for a moment. "Sora, the only useful thing I can think of is your original idea – to try to break through this webbing somehow.I think we need to go over this cell with a fine-toothed comb – floor and ceiling too – to try to find a way out.If we can escape, then perhaps we can confuse the situation enough to give the others a chance to avoid capture."Sora pursed her lips doubtfully.

"We'll have to make sure we're good and far away then.Izzy must be using his laptop to track our life signals.If we're too close to this place, the others will fall into Metaldevimon's trap anyway."

"That's a chance we have to take, Sora." Said Yamato with a shrug, "Besides, I don't see that we have much choice: it's either try to escape or sit here on our butts while Metaldevimon kills our friends."Sora winced at his bluntness, but agreed totally with the sentiment.

They started to explore their cell inch by inch.It was extremely hard work – there was little or no light and the coarse material stung and tore at their hands, while they had great difficulty in keeping track of what areas they had covered and what were still to be explored.Fortunately, the ceiling was low enough that they could touch it comfortably without stretching too much, but the resulting search was still backbreaking.

"I don't believe there's any break at all in this stuff." muttered Sora, nursing her sore and aching limbs.Yamato straightened his spine with a groan and a sigh.

"This is no good," he said, in frustration, "But I'm fresh out of any other ideas.Sora, let's try the floor for a change – at least my back will be bent in the other direction."Sora obediently switched direction and began to examine the floor minutely, crouching on her hands and knees.She was working mainly by touch as there was hardly any light to speak of, and her torn and roughened hands had become incredibly sensitive to contact with the spider silk.She bit her lip against the pain and continued to search for – something, some difference, anything that was not quite uniform with the rest of the floor.And she found it.

"Matt!" Sora's low, excited voice penetrated his discomfort, "I think I've got something."Yamato was at her side in an instant, crawling on hands and knees.

"Where?"In the darkness, she guided his hands to a part of the floor that did not quite match.Using his sore fingertips, Yamato slowly explored the small patch of spider silk, tracing the weave, trying to determine exactly what was different.

"They didn't quite match the pattern." He said at last, "The stuff is joined together, but not completely.This isn't a seam, Sora, it's simply – well, glued together!" 

Yamato turned his triumphant face towards her, his wayward blonde hair close enough to brush her cheek.Sora was suddenly and acutely aware of his closeness, but curbed her immediate instinct to pull away by directing herself firmly towards re-examining the floor.Disregarding the pain, she began to pull at the fibres, but failed to make any impression.Then she had a brainwave.Searching frantically in the pocket which contained the first aid supplies, she unearthed the medical scissors.

"Now we're really in business!" crowed Yamato as she held them up.Unfortunately, their points were blunt, but apart from this the scissors seemed admirably suited to the job of slicing through the sticky glue that held the fibres together.However, try as she might Sora could not make any headway with the silk itself.Growling impatiently, Yamato pushed her aside and grabbed the scissors as she started to tire.Soon he had a sizeable split in the floor matting, wide enough to accommodate an arm.

"We'll soon be through here, Sora." He said with a grim smile as he sat up to nurse his aching back.However, Sora's face remained serious and she put out a hand to restrain him as he turned to continue the work.

"Matt," She began in an odd tone, "Where do you think we are?"He breathed out impatiently.

"We've already discussed that, Sora, there's no point in going over old ground.We have no reference points, so we can't work out our location."But the girl was shaking her head.

"No, Matt, I didn't mean that."She stopped suddenly, and her demeanour was so strange that Yamato did indeed pause in his work to stare at her in the dim light.She chewed on her lower lip, then finally turned to him.

"What are you aiming to achieve with that tear you're making in the spider silk?"

"Well, I'm aiming to take it as far as I can, preferably to the wall, and then, if I'm lucky we'll be able to crawl out under it."Sora shook her head absently.

"I've got a strange feeling about this." She began, slowly, "Matt, these creatures are _spiders_.They not only work right, left, forward and back, but also up and down too.Have you ever watched a spider make a web?Of course you have, we all have.Didn't it ever occur to you that if you were the spider, you'd choose a place more sympathetic to the force of gravity?"Yamato frowned.

"What are you getting at?"

"Spiders don't mind living upside down, Matt, it doesn't phase them like it does us.Maybe they're just lighter and don't feel gravity like we do; maybe they've got better-behaved stomachs – I don't know.All I know is that I'm beginning to think that we should be very careful with that split we've just made in the floor, because there may be nothing at all beneath it – just a very long drop and silence at the bottom."

"We must be nearly there by now." Mimi's whine was more of a whisper than a complaint.Joe looked sharply at her and registered her deeply shadowed eyes and stumbling gait.On a couple of occasions, she had nearly dropped Tsunamon, who was now talking to her, quietly and incessantly, to keep her awake.By her side, Kari's dark head was drooping.Joe decided to act.He quickly moved forward and annexed Izzy from Tai's side.

"Look, I know you've got more important things on your mind, and I know it's essential to keep going, but we've been walking for the best part of a day now and we need a good rest, otherwise we're just going to fold at the first opportunity."Izzy looked at him, puzzled.

"I agree, but why are you putting this proposition to me and not Tai?"Joe shrugged.

"You seem to have taken over Matt's post temporarily.I just thought Tai might take it better from you, that's all.Izzy, we really need a rest – when Mimi stops whining, I start worrying."Izzy smiled; just a small smile with a lot of pain behind it, but nevertheless a smile.

"Joe, you never _stop_ worrying!Okay, I'll try."Joe nodded and returned to his position with TK at the rear.Kari turned her head.

"Thanks Joe." She said quietly.He flushed slightly.

"That's okay, you need some rest."The smaller, dark-haired girl smiled gently at Joe.

"Not as much as Mimi." She replied, "Gatomon's been helping me carry Yokomon, but Palmon can't carry things for long periods of time without digivolving, so Mimi's had extra work."Joe stared at the girl in amazement.Mimi blushed faintly and hung her head.

"Mimi, if you'd only asked …" Joe trailed off as she shook her head.

"Joe, you and TK have a very dangerous role bringing up the rear." She said."I'm in a protected position here in the middle.I can't ask you to put yourselves and the rest of us at risk by carrying Tsunamon for me; what if we were attacked?"Joe was really gobsmacked.Mimi, thinking of the good of the group before her own comfort?How long had this particular development been creeping up on her?Why hadn't he noticed it before?Involuntarily, he turned his gaze towards Kari and their eyes met.She gave him a tiny knowing shrug and a complex grimace, which seemed to say "I'll talk to you later about that".Just then, Taichi called a rest period and began to assign lookouts.Joe and Gomamon found themselves on the first watch.

"Well, it looks like Izzy's good sense prevailed for once." Joe remarked quietly to his digi-companion as they settled themselves for their shift.Gomamon snorted.

"Just luck, I guess." He said, "On matters of opinion rather than knowledge or logic, Tai doesn't listen to anyone – except occasionally Matt." Joe sighed.

"Yeah, Matt. We need him very badly right now."

"And we need Sora, probably more so than Matt."The speaker, Kari, sat down next to Joe, followed by a flash of white as Gatomon made herself comfortable and began her nightly manicure.Joe looked up questioningly.

"Not that I want to underrate Sora's contribution to our happy band," he replied, "But in Matt's absence, we are a little short of men of action, and it's that type of strength that we need at the moment."Kari shook her head slowly.

"Friendship is very important in a group such as ours, when we are facing danger often," Kari continued, "But friendship alone can't survive for long without love.Tai is very uncomfortable without Matt at his side, but he is far more distressed knowing that Sora is at risk, and that he is not with her."Joe considered this in silence for a short while.

"We're all trying to cover for each other and for those who are missing," continued Kari's quiet voice, "But in the very attempt we are even more painfully aware of the gaping holes in our partnership."

"So is that why Mimi is coping with the difficulties of this journey so much better than usual?" Joe asked her, "Because she is trying to step into Sora's shoes, like Izzy into Matt's?"Kari's solemn face broke into a genuinely amused smile and she shook her head wonderingly.

"Joe, Joe." She sighed in exasperation, "Will you never learn to look beyond your nose?"

"What?" Joe was totally confused.Still shaking her head, Kari stood up.

"Mimi has been suffering a lot since Sora and Matt were kidnapped - but she does not worry for them with equal attention." And before he could question her further, she started to walk away.

"I must get some rest – my watch is next.Goodnight Joe."Still chuckling, she left to find a place to sleep.Joe tried to work it out but it beat him.

"I'll never understand girls." He muttered under his breath.

"Not until you treat them like people instead of aliens." He jumped at the unexpected voice and whirled round.Gatomon fixed him with her unwinking gaze and nonchalantly licked a paw.

"What did you say?" Joe demanded.Gatomon shrugged.

"If you only paid attention, you might find out the answer to some of your questions."

"You mean that Mimi …" Gatomon growled quietly, negatively.

"What I'm referring to has nothing whatsoever to do with Mimi."With a sudden leap, the graceful cat digimon had disappeared into the darkness after her beloved mistress.Joe stared after her, completely baffled.

"Gomamon, did you hear…?"The words died on his lips as he observed the seal digimon red-faced with suppressed laughter.At the sight of Joe's quizzical face, Gomamon exploded into loud guffaws of hysterical mirth.Muffled protests came from sleepy humans and digimon.

"Hey, can't a guy get some shut-eye!" hissed Taichi, irritably.Gomamon put a sock in it with difficulty, and by the time he had his laughter under control, Joe felt strangely unwilling to discuss its cause.He was uncomfortably aware of missing a beat somewhere, and with three people supposedly in the know about something that had totally eluded him, he concluded that discretion was the better part of it.

Joe's watch gave way to Kari's.Gomamon was already asleep and Joe hadn't the heart to disturb him, so he lay down next to him where they were.He watched Kari and Gatomon settle nearby and listened to the low murmur of their conversation until sleep finally overtook him.Gatomon's sensitive ears registered the deepening of his breathing pattern.She glanced over at Joe and his digimon, curled up together, and pondered.

"They're not so different in character underneath." Kari spoke quietly into her friend's ear.Gatomon twitched her whiskers in agreement.

"Gomamon is Joe with more confidence in what he can do."

"He's more laid back about life you mean!"The two giggled quietly.

"He is not aware of you yet." Gatomon spoke flatly.Kari's expression did not falter.

"I know that."

"He thinks you are still a child."Still Kari did not look at her friend.

"Perhaps he is right." She said eventually.The silence was deep but companionable.Gatomon stirred.

"I will take a little walk, I think." She stretched each limb carefully, "I am not happy about our present situation, although I think it unlikely that we will be attacked tonight."Kari looked up.

"Take care."

"Don't I always?"

"Take extra care tonight.I am not sure, but I sense something more than just these Arachnamon."Kari paused, Gatomon waited. "There is a brooding sense of evil in this place, a malevolence, a wish to do harm which I have not experienced before in the digiworld."Gatomon blinked her great eyes.

"I too sense a wrongness here, but unlike you I fear that I may recognise it."Kari's head jerked up.

"Why have you not mentioned this before?"

"I was not sure – I am still not positive.That is what I am going to try to discover."Kari nodded and said no more as Gatomon departed noiselessly to begin her reconnaissance.Kari knew that her friend was without doubt one of the best spies in the business: a scent on the air, a little whisper of sound – something, anything might give her a faint clue as to the state of things in this strange world beneath the earth, and she was best left to pursue her craft alone.

When Izzy took over watch from Kari and Gatomon still had not returned, Kari did not worry unduly.She knew her friend always had good reason for anything she did, but when Taichi roused them all and told them to eat the rest of the food they were carrying as they walked, a small needle of concern began to jab at her.She pushed her way forward and caught hold of Taichi's sleeve.

"Tai," she began, "I need to …"

"Not now, Kari," he said, irritably, "We must get going."

"Tai, Gatomon is missing." She told him, flatly, "She went out on reconnaissance last night, and she hasn't returned."Taichi was furious; Kari scarcely remembered ever having seen him so angry.

"What in digiworld did you think you were doing letting her go like that?Now that's another of us to worry about, not to mention being a crucial member of the assault force down at a critical time.Kari, I don't know how you could be so irresponsible!"

"Tai, Gatomon doesn't belong to me, she's simply my friend." Protested Kari, "I can't forbid her to take a walk any more than you can control Agumon in that way!"

"Agumon obeys my orders, just like you should be doing …"

"Tai, that's enough - just stop shouting at people.Gatomon's not here, that's plain.Now all we can do is carry on ourselves and hope that she joins us shortly.Gatomon's a much better tracker than any of us, and if she's at all able to, she will catch us up wherever we are. Now stop ripping up Kari for something that isn't her fault and start leading!"The voice was Joe's.Taichi's jaw hung open in amazement, Mimi and TK were completely lost for words.

"Tai, before we move off, I need to speak to you about this programme of Gennai's."Izzy jumped in quickly, pulling Taichi away into a huddle over his laptop before he could retaliate.Joe let out a pent-up breath and flushed a dull, angry red.

"I'm sorry guys, I must be more strung out than I thought."Joe sighed.

"Relax, Joe," Gomamon padded over to him, "Someone had to cool down Mr. Hothead there.I'm glad you managed it 'cos Kari didn't deserve what he said."

"That's okay, Gomamon." Kari smiled gently at his goofy face, "I get torn apart by my big brother quite frequently.He doesn't really mean it.But I was grateful that Joe stuck up for me – it's a little hard to fight Tai all on my own!"Kari flashed a grateful smile of such brilliance at Joe that he flushed brick red.The others relaxed, the tension dissolved and at that moment Izzy and Taichi finished their discussion and came over to the others.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, Kari; I overreacted." Taichi ran a hand through his more than usually wild hair and sighed. "I'm sure Gatomon knows what she's doing, but we need to keep an eye open for anything unusual that might relate to her, just in case she's in some kind of trouble.Now, let's move!"

The humans and digimon set off once again in the darkness, munching the food they had kept back until it was all finished.Now they knew they had to find Sora and Matt and free them from whatever was holding them prisoner within the next few hours, or they would be too weak to do battle.Izzy finished chewing his apple, core and all, and took out his laptop.He tapped at it for a few minutes, then studied it closely, trying to dislodge a stray pip from between his teeth.

"Yes!" he muttered, explosively, "I was right!"He turned to the grim-faced boy next to him.

"Tai!" he said, excitedly, "What I was telling you just now?About the signals changing position?They are definitely moving away from their original spot.It was quite slow at first, but now they are really motoring.We're going to have to adjust our route to intercept them."

"Hmm!" Taichi stroked his lower lip thoughtfully, "Now that's interesting.The question is, are they moving or being moved?Are the Arachnamon taking them somewhere - or have they escaped?"


	6. Chapter Six - Taichi starts to fall apar...

**_Malfunction?_**

# Chapter Six – Tai starts to fall apart

"I think it's big enough now." Yamato took one final look at his handiwork and passed the scissors back to Sora.She stowed them away in her pocket, and stared back at him with wide eyes.

"This is really the moment of truth, huh?" she said, her voice shaking slightly.He nodded grimly.

"I really wish we had a rope or something; I could end up swinging at the full extent of my arms and find I'm unable to get back."She shook her head.

"I'll pull you back, don't worry."Part of her mind had dissociated slightly.Rope!It would indeed be useful to have something to secure Yamato when he took his rather perilous climb into the dark.Would it be possible to ... No, she had to concentrate: Yamato had already swung his legs over the edge of the slit in the floor and was starting to lever himself through.Sora lay flat on the floor with her hands gripping his wrists while Yamato squeezed through the narrow opening.He found – absolutely nothing.He swung his legs backwards and forwards until they were encompassing a 180 degree arc, but still no contact with anything at all. 

"I'm going to let myself down further – try to help me take the strain." He gripped the edge of the aperture firmly and began to extend his arms downwards.Sora kept a tight grip on his wrists and felt him began to swing again.Still nothing.

"Quick!" he gasped, "Get me back up – I can't hold on much longer."Sora didn't need telling twice: she hauled at his arms frantically and he pulled himself laboriously back into their cell.

"Nothing." He managed to get out between heaving breaths, "Nothing at all, no contact whatsoever.I'm gonna have to think this out."He walked a couple of paces away from the hole and lay down on his back staring into space.Sora did not move.Presently she reached out to the ragged edge of the hole and began to pull at the fibres surrounding it.Now Yamato had slackened the glue, it seemed as though some of the fibres were working themselves loose, coming unravelled.Curiously, Sora pulled at one; it came away in her hand.She flexed it carefully – it seemed pretty strong, now where did it end?The strand of fibre ran to the end of the split in the floor, then seemed to disappear into the woven mass of webbing.Sora felt a wave of disappointment; she'd never manage to separate enough of the stuff to make a useable rope.Disconsolately, she tugged at the strand, which started to move.

"Huh?" she exclaimed quietly, then pulled again much harder this time.The piece of fibre slid slowly and stickily out of the weave, inch by inch, foot by foot as Sora kept pulling.

"Matt, come here!" she called excitedly.He was at her side in a moment.

"Take this." She handed him the end of the fibre strand.She herself took hold of it a little further along its length."Now pull, hard!"They both braced their feet against the floor and pulled mightily.The fibre resisted but continued to give, bit by bit, as they changed handholds several times.

"I should think we've almost got enough, Sora!" Yamato said, eventually, "What a stroke of luck!" Without warning, the fibre suddenly parted company with the webbing and Sora cannoned into Yamato, knocking him to the floor.When she had regained her breath, she levered herself up and away from him as quickly as possible, acutely embarrassed, then offered him a hand to help him up from the floor.Yamato took it politely and got up, but not before she had glimpsed a flash of amusement in his ice-blue eyes and a lopsided smile at her discomfiture.Sora shrugged inwardly: _I guess it is pretty funny really, I mean, acting like that over a complete accident, when earlier we were – well, I suppose I ought to try to work that one through sometime.Just not now: we've got too much to worry about already._Yamato was quickly coiling the rope and roughly measuring it at the same time.

"I reckon we've got enough rope here to explore fifteen/twenty feet before running out." He said in satisfaction, then he looked at her. "How good are you at abseiling?"She shrugged.

"Pretty good, at least I was.Haven't tried it recently though.Why do you – Oh, no!"Yamato smiled grimly.

"'Fraid so!" he replied, apologetically, "You see, you could never hold my weight for any length of time, but you're a lot lighter and I'm a good deal stronger.I'm sorry, Sora, but you're going to have to go down on the end of this rope."Sora gulped and looked very frightened for a moment, then she steeled herself and nodded tersely, grabbing one end of the fibre and starting to tie it around her in the proper knots.

"Let's get this over with then."While she was constructing a makeshift harness, Yamato was attempting to force another hole in the edge of the matting, not too close to the edge, in order to have something to brace with.By the time Sora was finished, he was ready.They looked into each others' eyes and Sora smiled.

"It's now or never." She whispered, through her dry throat.He nodded.

"Let's get this show on the road!"

"Izzy, where are they now?"The redhead looked up from his ceaseless perusal of the laptop screen.

"They seem to have stopped, at least for a while, Tai." He replied, "Their vital signs haven't changed for a good hour.I suspect they might be resting – speaking of which, we could probably do with a short breather.We're getting pretty close to them now."Taichi signalled for a brief halt without raising any objection.This in itself was remarkable, Izzy realised, but when he simply sat with his head in his hands, neither annoying Agumon nor pestering Izzy for information, then there was cause for worry.It seemed that Taichi was nearing the end of his tether.Izzy sat down next to him and, for once, closed his laptop.He felt rather awkward.There had never been any particularly strong bond between Taichi and the red-haired boy, either of attraction, as with Sora, or antagonism, as with Matt.Izzy had just been there, the computer geek, the one with all the answers to the difficult questions.He couldn't remember a time when so much had been required of him in areas in which he felt he had neither talent nor ability.He sighed inwardly and looked towards the other boy.Geez, how thin Taichi had become!Was this a recent thing? – Izzy couldn't remember.His face looked grim and as black as thunder.What was he brooding about?

"Tai?Tai!" Izzy placed a light hand on Taichi's shoulder.The boy started violently and glared at the intruder before registering who it was.

"Izzy.I was – miles away." He said, apologetically."Anything to report?"Izzy shook his head.

"Nothing.I was just wondering if you wanted to – well, talk a little."Taichi frowned.

"Talk?What about?"Izzy shrugged.

"I dunno.Life, the digiworld, Matt, Sora – whatever.You seem distracted – that's not like you."Taichi sighed and shook his head.

"I just keep thinking, Izzy." He ran his hands through his hair, "Sora.I – well, I never really asked her out, you know?It just sort of – happened one day.I don't know when I decided that Sora was my girl – I'm not sure if I had even made that sort of decision, my head was too full of the digi-world and Agumon digivolving and the need to protect everyone.Sora and I went to look for something to eat.Agumon and Biyomon took off into the woods and we tried to follow them, but we got sort of turned around and we couldn't find them.It got dark and we still couldn't find our way back, so we decided to make our own camp in a little cave we found.We'd had reasonable luck with regard to food – some fruit and a few edible roots – and we found enough brushwood to make a small fire.We were comfortable enough, but the fuel soon ran out, and we knew the fire wouldn't last through the night, so we – well, slept huddled together.For warmth, you know."Taichi was slightly embarrassed, even though the memory was obviously one of his happiest."You know, Izzy, I never even kissed her for weeks after that.We've been going together for four years, and I've never even taken her to a movie, or even a party!"Izzy smiled.

"There aren't many drive-ins in digiworld, but we could have a party if you wanted – you know, to celebrate getting them back.If we found somewhere with a good beach, enough fish and stuff for a barbecue, a nice moonlit night – I could find some mood music on the Pineapple.Hey, maybe we could find out if Joe can dance!"Taichi looked up at Izzy with a grin of genuine enthusiasm.

"Hey, that's a great idea, Izzy!" he exclaimed, "We could have a beach party!Hey, maybe we could get some of those red berries – you know, the ones that make that really yummy juice.Sora always seems to be able to track them down …" The light in his face dimmed.

"I miss Matt." He said, suddenly, "I know we fight and argue and never seem to agree on anything, but without him I'm so unsure of what I'm doing."He turned and put a hand on Izzy's shoulder. "You've been terrific, Izzy – don't think I'm too dense to have noticed how much you've helped me – but Matt's like my other half.I feel like I've lost my right arm – and I most probably have." He sighed deeply.

"But most of all, I miss having Sora near me so much.I can't sleep without knowing she's there; I keep thinking I see her in the corner of my eye, yet I know she's missing; everyone's morale's so low at the moment, and I'm certain that's because my Sora isn't there to make everyone feel wanted and needed."He looked up, his eyes shining and not bothering to hide the fact, "I – I love her, Izzy; I love her so much, but I know she always has to goad me into telling her so.I feel so unworthy of her; I try to show her how much I love her, but somehow I always seem to get it wrong.And now, I can't find it in me to believe we're really going to get her or Matt back.I can't do it without Matt, Izzy.Strange that, isn't it?I can't rescue Matt without Matt to help. Oh, Geez!"Taichi buried his head in his hands.Izzy's blood ran cold.If Taichi Kamiya, bearer of the Crest of Courage, had lost faith in himself and in the rest of the digidestined, then truly things looked bad.Izzy couldn't for the life of him think of a single thing to do or say to make the situation any better.But someone else could.

"Don't say that, Tai, don't say that!"Takeru had approached silently from behind Izzy and had heard the last part of what Taichi had said.Taichi looked up at him hopelessly and shook his head.

"TK, I'm sorry but I just can't see how we're going to come out of this one alive and intact.I wish I felt otherwise, but I just think it's hopeless."Takeru paused for a moment, then put his hand on Taichi's arm.

"This is the very worst adventure we've ever had in digiworld." He said, quietly, "We've been in some more dangerous circumstances, but we've never had to travel in such a horrible, scary situation before.And you know, I think that's part of it.Yeah, I think that whatever's in charge here is making us feel this way, using its power to sap our strength and our faith in ourselves and each other.But we're not going to let it beat us!I am the bearer of the Crest of Hope, and while my crest is with us, we won't lose sight of what we need to do here.Now, Tai, let's go: we gotta rescue Sora, and my brother, and the longer we stay here letting the darkness seep into our bones, the weaker we're gonna be when it comes to the crunch!" Taichi stared at Takeru for a moment, then he got to his feet.

"You're right, TK." He said, his voice gaining some of its old authority, "I keep thinking you're still nine years old – I forget that you're almost all growed up now.Thanks – for reminding me of my job!"Takeru gave a slightly ironic grin and slapped Taichi lightly on the shoulder.

A flash of white in Taichi's peripheral vision made him turn his head quickly.As he did so, he heard a sigh of relief followed by Kari's low voice.

"Gatomon!Oh, thank goodness you're back!You've been gone so long – I was worried."Gatomon rubbed her head apologetically against Kari's arm.

"I am sorry." She replied softly, "I had some difficulty getting back to you.Not everywhere here is covered with these convenient walkways – most areas are just criss-crossing fibres of spider silk.I'm very good at negotiating difficult places, but not that good!"

"Did you see anything?"Taichi had come up quickly to her side.Gatomon fixed him with a cool feline stare and shook her head.

"Nothing.No sign of life at all, which is strange in itself.The Arachnamon seem to have gone to sleep or into hiding – there is no sign of them at all along our route."Taichi nodded and turned away.Izzy moved over to him.

"This sounds bad, Tai; there ought to be at least a few sentries, or some use of what seems to be a major thoroughfare."

"What do you suggest we do, Izzy?"Taichi's brow was furrowed, "If Gatomon can't walk on these sticky fibres, then we certainly can't.As far as I can see it, we have no other choice but to carry on the way we're going, and hope that we've got enough firepower to beat the pants of anything that's ahead."Izzy had nothing to add, so Taichi began rounding up the rest of the digidestined to start moving.

"Did you discover anything else?" said Kari in a low voice to her digimon.Gatomon growled softly and shook her silky head.

"I still do not know what it is that disturbs me.It is familiar, and yet not the same.I am certain I have encountered this intelligence before, a long time ago when I served Myotismon, but it is not he, nor is it any of his servants."The cat-like digimon looked up at her mistress.

"I am sorry, Kari, I can tell you no more."Kari said nothing, merely stroked Gatomon's head gently.

"I'm sorry, Matt, I just can't reach anything at all.It's like we're suspended in a basket over the edge of a cliff!"Sora's voice was muffled.Yamato braced the rope again and sighed.

"I can only give you a couple more feet at the most." He responded, and proceeded to lower her a little further into the abyss.A little later her voice floated back.

"Still nothing.I think you'd better reel me in."

"Okay."In great disappointment, Yamato began the laborious process of hauling Sora back into their cell.Thwarted, they sat by the hole in the floor and stared at each other, trying to think of something else.

"If we could only see what was down there, we might stand a sporting chance!" muttered Yamato savagely, slamming his hands down on the webbing in frustration.Sora's mouth opened in surprise.

"Light!" she whispered, excitedly, "Light!A torch!"

"Do you have one?" Yamato turned quickly.She shook her head, fumbled at her belt and held out her digivice.

"Light!" she said again, "A light to banish all darkness, Centarumon said."Curiously, Yamato took out his own device.

"This?" he queried, doubtfully, "D'you think it'll work?"Sora leaped up smiling grimly.

"There's only one way to find out – lower me over the edge again, Matt, I shan't be too long this time!"

Sora was only just below the hole when she took out her digivice with a shaking hand.If this failed, she was totally devoid of any other ideas, and time was getting short._Please help us, just this once, give me some light - please!_She begged silently.As if in answer, a beam of light shot from the digivice, illuminating everything within reach and causing Sora to wince and turn away reflexively.

"Sora!Sora, are you okay?"Yamato had felt the jerk on the rope.Tears of pain at the sudden brightness after so much dark erupted down Sora's cheeks all at once, doubly blinding her.

"Wait up, Matt." She called, trying to blink them away.She angled the digivice downwards and saw absolutely nothing; empty space, no fibres, no walkways, no other structures at all.She couldn't see the bottom, but she didn't doubt that it was a long way down and the landing would not be soft.He spirits fell to rock bottom, and additional tears, this time of defeat, sprang to her eyes.However, her mind would not let her give up so easily.She swung the digivice round carefully, and discovered that indeed her guess about the location of their prison was right: they were suspended, probably at the lowest point over the abyss.Therefore their captors, when they visited, had to have come from above.She angled the light carefully above her head and examined the outside of the cell.With a leap of spirits which threatened to dislodge her from the rope, she realised that it was covered from top to bottom with woven fibres; fibres knotted and glued together in a repeating pattern, which resembled nothing so much as a series of rope ladders.Holding on to her elation, she peered further and further upwards, to discover a broad, woven structure, which looked suspiciously like a rope bridge.

"Bingo!" she said softly, then replaced the digivice in her belt and proceeded to climb back into the cell.

Within a very short time, Yamato and Sora had secured the middle of their fibre rope to the edge of the hole and had constructed makeshift harnesses of a slightly different sort for both of them out of the two ends of the rope.

"At least if one of us slips, we'll have a fighting chance of climbing back without pulling the other one with us." Said Yamato, tightening the knots, "Come on, Sora, we've wasted enough time in this place."And with that, he swung himself head first out of the hole, scrabbling for hand and foot holds on the thick, fibrous rope.The climb proved to be ridiculously easy for two high school athletes – it could have been built for them – and it was a very short time before they were standing on the roof of their erstwhile prison, checking out the terrain before they set foot on the rope bridge.Sora, who had been holding her digivice as a torch, suddenly withdrew the light and put it in her pocket.

"Hey, what didja do that for?" protested Yamato in a whisper.

"We can't use it, Matt, it'll be a total giveaway – as good as standing up and shouting 'Here we are!'And if we're going to walk in the dark, we need to take a few minutes for our eyes to become accustomed to the lack of light."The two waited on the bridge until their night vision kicked in.They could make out the rope bridge plainly, and certain other as yet unidentified structures came into dim view.The coast was clear.

"Okay." Yamato whispered, fiercely, "Now let's get as far away from here as possible!"


	7. Chapter Seven - The Arrival of the Caval...

**_Malfunction?_**

# 

# Chapter Seven – The Arrival of the Cavalry

Izzy stopped abruptly and took the, for him, unprecedented step of tapping the screen of his laptop impatiently - gently, of course – and shook his head in bewilderment.

"Tai, they're moving away from us, quite fast.We'll have to change our route if we're going to intercept them."

"Let me see."Nervously, Izzy entrusted his precious computer to Taichi's not-too-tender care, but the older boy was only interested in reading the screen.

"Hmm!" he chewed his upper lip thoughtfully, "I think you'd better plot another route, Izzy, but try to make sure we don't have to walk tightropes, won't ya?"This was another part of the situation that had worried Izzy from the start.The going was dark and spooky, and was slowly freaking most of them out, but they had travelled mainly on fairly wide walkways constructed of strong spider silk woven into hessian type matting.This reinforced his idea that they were being softened up by the seriously horrible atmosphere of the place, the endless exhausting route marches, and the lack of proper food and water, but in reality were being drawn down a carefully planned route into a web, like a lot of helpless little flies._What in digiworld do spiders need with walkways like this?_He pondered to himself. _They can walk upside down on ceilings, and they use the thin thread of their sticky webs like – well, like we use floors and stairs.Have these walkways been constructed just for us?Or is there someone else who uses them?If the former, we're doomed: there's no way we're going to be able to retrace our steps and get out of here.If the latter, there's a chance we may be able to modify our route and mess up his nice little plan.However, our chances of survival may only be slightly higher: we don't know who or what this someone else is, how powerful they are, whether we can beat them or not.I'm beginning to think that Taichi was right in his assessment of our chances of survival._Izzy sagged in mental and physical fatigue, and involuntarily tripped.Taichi grabbed him quickly before he had a chance to fall.

"Hey, man, you better concentrate on walking and forget that computer of yours for a while!" he admonished in a friendly fashion, but Izzy was carefully examining the floor beneath his feet.

"It's a junction," He exclaimed, straightening up, "And it doesn't even show up on Gennai's programme!If we take this route, it could help us intercept Matt and Sora, if they continue at the pace and direction they are presently taking.However, Gennai's programme will no longer be of any use, as it simply does not recognise this route, so we'll have to do it the old fashioned way and also be prepared to simply turn around and retrace our steps if it turns out to be a dead end."

"I say take the new path." Replied Taichi instantly, "I've cooled on that programme.If someone's stacking the deck against us, we aren't going to help ourselves by using loaded dice as well."

"Rather a mixed metaphor, but quite apposite, Tai." Commented Izzy, "Okay, let's take the high road."He set foot on the walkway, which seemed almost exactly like the one they had left, however, the going was somewhat slower as Taichi and Izzy had to examine the ground more thoroughly now that Gennai's programme had outlived its usefulness.

It was on one of these stops that Joe noticed Mimi again.She was standing on her own, talking to no one, not even Palmon, her head drooping and her face miserable.He sidled over to Kari.

"Kari, look at Mimi."Kari nodded.

"Yes, I know.Honestly, if Palmon cannot help her at this time, then no one else can.I have been trying to talk to her as we walk, but it is an uphill struggle.She is suffering."Joe was puzzled.

"What did you mean when you told me I should look beyond my nose?"Kari looked at him, then smiled almost affectionately.

"Well, I meant two things really," She began, "But as far as Mimi is concerned, she is very unhappy because she does not believe that we can save Matt; in fact, she may believe that he is already dead."Joe stared, then frowned.

"Mimi and Matt?How long has this been going on?"Kari giggled.

"Joe, you really are unobservant, aren't you?It's not been 'going on' as you put it, but Mimi is fond of Matt.What exactly Matt's feelings are on the subject, I'm afraid I have no information."

"He is still not awake yet." Added Gatomon's voice quietly, "He is like you, Joe Kido."Then to Joe's complete bewilderment, Kari blushed.

"Gatomon!" she admonished, "You take too much on yourself.I think we had better get going – Tai has decided to risk this next stretch of walkway, I think."She moved away quickly leaving Joe utterly confused.He took his usual place beside Takeru, but his mind was not on the job and Takeru could hardly raise a monosyllable from his companion.

Meanwhile, Yamato and Sora were crouching precariously on some sticky fibres suspended below a walkway, which had turned out to be rather a main thoroughfare.They had come a very long way, or so it seemed, in a short space of time and were going at such a precipitous rate that they nearly ran into the group of sentries before they saw them.Yamato promptly dived over the side of the walkway, dragging Sora with him, and clung for dear life on to the edge, their feet scrabbling desperately for footholds.Fortunately, the sentries passed without incident, but this brush with disaster served as a timely reminder that they were getting nearer to populated areas.Once they were sure that the sentries were gone, Yamato and Sora heaved themselves back over the edge and set out once more, hand in hand so that they would not lose each other in the enveloping darkness.

A little later, the walkway seemed to widen out into a broad, level platform.

"Wait up, Matt," whispered Sora, having lost her sense of position, "I don't like this."

"It's just got wider, that's all." returned Yamato, pulling on her arm, "We gotta keep moving."

"No, wait!"Sora stopped dead, forcing Yamato to turn back.He opened his mouth in angry protest, and she immediately slapped a well-aimed hand over it, silencing him.

"I hear something – up ahead."Sora looked quickly around; there was no cover whatsoever.Quickly, soundlessly, she dropped to the floor like a stone, pulling Yamato with her.The two lay there flat on their fronts, stretching their hearing to its limits.

"Directly ahead." Yamato breathed, his lips grazing Sora's ear, "Coming up fast, I'd say.A large group.Not Arachnamon."They turned and stared at each other.

"Could it be ..?"Sora's whisper faded out as the group ahead of them set foot on the platform.Without thinking of the possible consequences if she were wrong, Sora leaped to her feet and pulled out her digivice.Obligingly, it burst into light, illuminating the group at the other end of the platform, who yelled in protest, covering their eyes against the unaccustomed brightness.

"Tai!" shouted Sora in heartfelt relief, "Oh, Tai!"

"Sora?" Taichi's voice cracked, something it rarely did these days.The digidestined, humans and digimon ran towards each other, only to rock backwards on their heels in horror as an unearthly apparition began to form between them. The darkness itself started to coalesce into one deathly outline, glowing with the same sickly lustre that permeated through the Arachnamon's lair.Larger and larger it grew, gradually taking a shape that seemed vaguely familiar.Only Yokomon and Tsunamon carried on running, straight into the arms of their beloved friends.

"You thought you could escape me, but instead you have walked straight into my trap!"The digidestined to a man were rooted to the spot with fear as the figure finished its ghastly transformation and smiled evilly down at them.

"That's Devimon!" cried Taichi, disbelievingly, but Izzy shook his head, dark eyes wide with shock as he tapped into his database.

"I'm sorry, Tai, but it isn't – at least not any more.It's Metaldevimon.He's digivolved to his Mega stage - and we just don't have the firepower to defeat him this time."

"We tried to warn you," yelled Sora, despairingly, "But he jammed the digivices before we could tell you.He's been reactivated, and this is his stronghold." 

Metaldevimon laughed uproariously.Taichi seemed to sag in weariness as he beheld the stuff of his worst nightmares becoming real before his very eyes.

"Geez," he muttered to himself, "Doesn't this place ever give us a break?"Then suddenly, visibly he pulled himself together.

"Matt," he shouted, "Any suggestions?"Yamato fumbled in his pocket.

"Just one." He replied and grinning, held his digivice aloft.Obligingly, it abruptly threw a searing beam of light over Metaldevimon, "We might as well see what we're aiming at."Quickly, all the other digidestined children pulled out their digivices and aimed their brightness at Metaldevimon. An unbearable keening arose from his Arachnamon servants as they backed away from the agonising light, but Metaldevimon's reply was contemptuous.

"Do you really think that those pathetic little torches are enough to worry me?Me?The all-powerful Metaldevimon?"

"They've put paid to your bunch of creepy crawlies!" yelled Taichi, rudely, "And that's not all we've got, Metaldevimon, you're in big trouble."

"I am only too well aware of your capabilities," retorted the Megadigimon, "I have studied them for many a long year, and I know to the last digevolution what you and your motley band of renegades and outcasts from the human world are capable of.You haven't a hope, and what's more in your heart of hearts, mortal, you know that."Taichi was silent.Unable to bear the truth, Matt spoke up.

"You thought you had us penned up, just like worms dangling on a hook.But we fooled you."He was shouting now, "Sora and I got away, and we led you a merry dance through this pathetic excuse for a fortress before you caught up with us."

"Fool!" bellowed Metaldevimon, spitting a wisp of bad temper which exploded in a shower of sparks at Yamato's feet, making him jump reflexively, "You didn't escape, you were allowed to leave.I told you you were bait for the others, and you played your part perfectly.I congratulate you: even I could not have assembled all the digidestined in a place of my own choosing quite so quickly!"

"I've heard enough of this creep! – Agumon, warp-digivolve!"Taichi was furious, both with the creature bearing down on him, and with himself for having fallen into so obvious a trap.Swiftly, Agumon grew many times his own size and his appearance changed to that of Wargreymon.Tsunamon, at last reunited with Yamato, warped just as rapidly into Metalgarurumon, followed quickly by the other digimon warping into their own ultimate forms.Megakabuterimon was the first to attack with his **Electro Shocker**, but was contemptuously brushed aside by a sweep of Metaldevimon's massive claw. 

"**Terra force**!" countered Wargreymon quickly, hoping to catch Metaldevimon on the hop, but he easily evaded the powerful blast.

"**Swathe of Malevolence**!" boomed the evil Megadigimon.A dark cloud, shot with sickly green lightening powered towards Wargreymon and scored a direct hit.Metalgarurumon leaped into the fray, taking advantage of the distraction, but was unlucky.His unconscious form was unceremoniously flung on top of Wargreymon.Sora bit her lip: this was not going well.Next to suffer was Angemon.His **Hand of Fate** barely dented Metaldevimon's armour this time before the backlash left him limp and helpless, hanging from a walkway. Metaldevimon howled with unholy glee at the sight of his former enemy defeated so easily.Angewomon managed to score with a **Celestial Arrow** which wounded the evil digimon, but this only served to make him angrier, and the retaliatory thrust not only knocked her out but also slammed her into Garudamon, leaving both of them unconscious.

"Oh, no!" screamed Sora and, evading Yamato's restraining arm, started to run across the platform towards her injured digimon.Meanwhile, Metaldevimon was despatching Lillymon with equal ease and lack of effort, all the time laughing maniacally.

"**Vulcan's Hammer**!" roared Zudomon, coming to her rescue, at his fiercest.He actually managed to hurt Metaldevimon, and pressed home his advantage, but mega-digimon are rare and extremely powerful creatures.Metaldevimon simply picked him up in one giant clawed hand and threw him hard into the rockface.Zudomon collapsed like a stone.

"Your pathetic, puny little attempts to foil me are like mosquito bites – a nuisance, but hardly threatening."

"Some mosquitoes carry malaria," muttered Taichi, helplessly, "Let's hope one of us does."Suddenly, Metaldevimon became aware of one small figure making her way across the platform, frantic worry for her digimon making her careless of her own safety.

"What's this?" he boomed, "You dare to defy me?"A huge metal talon descended and clamped painfully around Sora.She screamed in utter terror and beat uselessly at the claw as it bore her effortlessly aloft and held her parallel to the evil face.

"Sora!" yelled Taichi, in an agony of fear for her.Without thinking, he tore over to Metaldevimon and, with a tremendous leap, clung on to one of his darkly shining wings and began to climb.Aware of the intrusion, Metaldevimon grunted in annoyance and brushed Taichi aside as he would an irritating insect.Taichi crashed to the ground, senseless.Wargreymon stirred, shook his massive head in pain and began to lever the as yet comatose Metalgarurumon off his chest.

"Tai," his voice rumbled, "Tai, are you okay?"With a stupendous effort, he rose unsteadily to his feet.Metaldevimon focussed all of his attention on to the terrified Sora.

"You!" he growled, "You, the bearer of the Crest of Love!" He spat the words out as though they tasted foul, "You are deserving of the first display of my supreme power.You, who thought you could defeat me, will be the first to die!"

"Let her go, you coward!" Yamato stood rebelliously before Metaldevimon, almost incandescent with rage."Go bully someone who can fight back, you miserable excuse for a virus!"In fury, Metaldevimon struck Yamato with his other claw and sent him flying through the air to smash into the rock wall with sickening force.Metalgarurumon suddenly began to revive, the damage to Yamato penetrating through his unconsciousness.Izzy shook Megakabuterimon by one mighty claw.

"C'mon, please, you've got to help Sora!" The giant antennae trembled slightly, and the enormous insect began to come back to life.Angemon lifted his helmeted head wearily and tried to realign his double vision, Angewomon began to crawl back to an upright position, Lillymon and Zudomon also started to revive.Only Garudamon was in Metaldevimon's direct line of sight, and she elected to remain motionless for the time being as she calculated that this was her best shot at assisting Sora to escape.Every digimon and human knew in their heart of hearts that all they were achieving was to postpone the end for a short time, but this was what they had been called to do, and they would do it willingly and with a whole heart.Metalgarurumon prepared to leap, Wargreymon gathered himself for a **Terra Force**, Angemon joined hands with Angewomon to strengthen their individual attacks, Megakabuterimon stood up, albeit shakily, and began to turn up the voltage.All the digimon prepared for one last attempt against this unpredictably awesome foe, when something quite unexpected happened: Sora's crest began to glow.

In the midst of her mind-numbing terror, Sora suddenly registered the soft, rose-coloured light emanating from the jewel.

"What the...?" was the only exclamation which escaped from her dry throat.Metaldevimon turned his evil face towards her with the obvious intention of watching while he slowly crushed her with his claw, but he suddenly froze as the rosy light of her crest fell on his face.

"What's this?" he exclaimed, with sudden uncertainty, "Why is your crest glowing?What – what are you doing to me?I – I can't do it … I can't harm something as beautiful as you …" Abruptly, Sora understood.The knowledge burst upon her like the sun emerging from behind a cloud, like a spotlight on a dark stage.

"Its power is to make others love me!" she muttered, "To make them unable to harm me while they are in the vicinity of my crest. No wonder the guys responded so strangely!"Suddenly, she realised that she could waste no more time in revelations: Metaldevimon was still staring at her in wonder, but she couldn't deceive herself that this unexpected power she had over him would last longer than an instant.She drew breath.

"Now!" she shrieked, as loudly as her lungs would allow, "Take him out, all of you, NOW!"Then with as much strength as she could muster, she squeezed herself out between Metaldevimon's claws, overbalanced and fell screaming towards the platform fifty feet below.Garudamon launched her massive frame and dived in a fraction of a second.At that moment, the other digimon let rip with everything they had.

"**Metal Wolf Claw**!" howled Metalgarurumon, aiming for the jugular.

"**Flower Cannon**!" determined not to be left out, Lillymon led the others in simultaneous attacks, which threatened to demolish the entire volcano.Metaldevimon, his guard completely down and his attention totally distracted, scarcely registered the attacks until they hit him, full on.He howled in agony and attempted to gather himself together in retaliation, but it was too late.Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon, the two mega digimon, moved in to finish him off, with Megakabuterimon, Zudomon and Lillymon assisting.Angemon and Angewomon flew overhead to add their strength to the fray, but Garudamon, having rescued Sora from certain death by literally snatching her out of the air, administered the final **Wing Blade** that sent the evil megadigimon into the ether for the second time.

"You haven't seen the last of me!" he shrieked, "I'll be back again, and next time you'll die, all of you!"His body dissolved into particles of grey and black data that drained away like sand.There was a long, exhausted silence.


	8. Chapter Eight - Epilogue

**_Malfunction?_**

# Chapter Eight – Epilogue

"What did he mean 'I'll be back'?" asked Taichi.They had finally escaped from the volcano with the aid of the two flying ultimates, Garudamon and Megakabuterimon, who discovered the central chimney (long extinct) and literally air-lifted them out.The Arachnamon had offered no resistance – indeed, they had disappeared into hiding almost immediately Metaldevimon had been despatched – and the digidestined had managed to find the cave they had camped in on the way up.There they had quickly devoured the remaining food and had slept for a whole day and night, too tired to set watches or worry about being attacked.On awakening, there seemed to be general agreement that the sooner they put a lot of ground between them and the Arachnamon the better, but this time they travelled by more conventional means - feet.It was on this journey that Taichi asked his question.

"Yeah," agreed Takeru, as they trudged onwards, "We thought we'd got rid of him when he was Devimon – no offence to you, Patamon – but we hadn't, and he came back even stronger as Metaldevimon.Frankly, we'd be hard pressed to get rid of him again as Devimon, but if he were to come back as anything stronger, I really don't think we could be as lucky a second time."Taichi looked around the others.

"Izzy?" he said, suggesting that perhaps the redhead would be able to shed some light on the situation.Izzy shrugged.

"Obviously, Devimon backed himself up in some way before Angemon kicked him into Never Land.The question is, how long does it take him to become reactivated.I guess its been about four years since the last time we beat him, so I think we can probably count on at least that amount of time, if not more.But I really can't be sure."

"How about asking Gennai." Yamato suggested.Taichi made a rude noise.

"He'll probably just tell you he forgot, then fade out claiming to be on a tight schedule.Forget Gennai, forget Devimon: this looks like what we're searching for!"It was mid-afternoon, and they found themselves on a small beach fringed with trees and other undergrowth.The cliffs behind the beach boasted a number of small caves, one of which was large and dry enough for the girls to sleep in, or for them all to shelter in if it rained.Matt checked on the high tide mark - it was well below the line of the caves – and Gomamon located a number of rockpools from which he was busily catching their evening meal.Taichi nodded in satisfaction.

"I think we should stay here a few days, if the weather holds out."He announced to general agreement, "We need a good rest after dealing with Metaldevimon.Let's set up camp."The others scattered, busying themselves on reconnaissance or foraging.Sora, wandering down the beach ostensibly looking for driftwood, but in reality enjoying the late sunshine, was joined by Joe.He was looking slightly uncomfortable, as though puzzled by something he didn't really want to talk about.Sora was amused.

"Sora," he began, awkwardly, "Were you aware of anything between, well, Mimi and Matt?"Sora glanced back at the rest of the group at the campsite and watched the distant figure of Mimi detach Matt from the rest on some pretext or other, and lead him unresisting into the bushes._Probably to pick berries or something_, she mused, _at least, that'll be her story!_She turned to Joe.

"Well, Joe, I suppose I knew Mimi liked him – I've guessed that for a long time – but I really couldn't tell you how Matt feels about it." Joe shook his head in wonder.

"It completely escaped me – I had to ask Kari."Sora's eyes twinkled.

"Kari, huh?"For some unexplained reason, Joe found his face feeling warm.

"Yeah, she, uh, laughed at me for not realising."Sora couldn't hold back a chuckle.

"For not realising about Mimi, or about someone else, Joe?"

"Huh?" Joe stared, his face suddenly the colour of coral.No, wait a minute.Sora glanced down to see her Crest busily emanating its rosy glow once again.

"Oh, goodness!" she exclaimed, "It's doing it again.I suppose I should be grateful, but it really does crop up at the most inconvenient … Joe?"She looked up at him.Joe's face was a picture of conflicting emotions.

"Sora, your Crest." He began, helplessly, "You look … why haven't I noticed before?You're …" He didn't finish as she backed off determinedly.

"Save it for Kari, Joe; this thing's doing me no favours at the moment."She sprinted off into the trees and stayed there until the glow had subsided.While she sat in silence pondering, it occurred to her that this strange new power her Crest was exhibiting was going to be an almighty nuisance.It seemed to work every time she was alone with a guy - and the guys seemed to respond immediately.Now, whilst there are probably any number of girls who would give anything to have that sort of power, even if it was a little inconvenient at times, Sora was not one of them; at least, not in the somewhat restricted social situation of digiworld.

"What am I going to do?" she wondered.She had no answer.

Eventually, the light of the Crest of Love died down, and Sora made her way cautiously back to camp.On arrival, her heart sank as she observed Taichi in his aggressive arguing stance, but she became even more worried when she saw that the subject of his annoyance was not, as was usually the case, Matt but Joe.

"Whaddaya mean, it had some effect on you?C'mon Joe, spit it out.It's important."Joe was looking embarrassed, mortified and slightly frightened.Sora's heart went out to him: she stepped into the ring of people.

"It's okay, Joe." She said soothingly, "Tai, just calm down."He grabbed her shoulders as if he would never let her go.

"Sora, what is this about you and Joe?What's your Crest got to do with anything?Why won't Joe just tell me the truth?"Sora considered taking Taichi quietly aside and explaining, as best she knew how, what the problem with her Crest had been, but as she glanced round the expectant group and her eyes rested on Izzy, Joe and finally, with most pain, on Yamato, she realised that she owed them all an explanation, not just Taichi.She gave a small sigh.

"I suggest we get a fire going and some fish cooking first, or we could be very hungry and cold tonight by the time I've finished."

"I doubt we'd be cold – the meteorological conditions are very favourable – but I take your point about the food."Sora smiled secretly at Izzy's mannerisms and busied herself building a fire.Soon the fish were roasting on sticks and Mimi and Kari were sectioning some kind of citrus fruit to accompany it.

"Okay, Sora," said Taichi, determinedly, "Let's have it."They all looked at her.The girls' and Takeru's faces were interested but impartial, poor Joe was already squirming, Izzy looked apprehensive, but Yamato was his usual cool, unflappable self.Only the sky-blue eyes betrayed uneasiness as he flashed a glance in her direction then looked away._Don't worry, Matt, _she thought, reassuringly, _I'm not an idiot._She opened her mouth to begin.Abruptly, the embers of the fire shifted aside and, through the flames, a column of light arose.Inside it seemingly floated a very old man with a braid of long grey hair.

"About time." He snapped, irritably, "I've been trying to get through to you for days.Where have you been?"

"Gennai!" they chorused.Taichi grinned.

"Hey, Gennai," he began, "We've been kind of busy, ya know?Like rescuing Sora and Matt from the Arachnamon, and beating the pants off Metaldevimon."

"Well, that's no excuse for failing to keep in regular touch." The old man was not impressed, "A simple email would have sufficed."Izzy protested.

"But Gennai, we were underground.I tried several times, but either the link wouldn't work that deep, or your system was down!"

"Excuses!"The old man brushed Izzy's explanations aside, "Now, if you had remembered to keep me posted as to your doings, I might have been able to save one of you a great deal of inconvenience.Sora, my dear: your Crest if you please."He turned towards the astonished girl, holding out a holographic hand.

"Wha- what?" was all she could manage.He snapped his fingers impatiently.

"Come on, come on!Don't you want me to fix it for you?"

"Fix it?"

"Of course!Haven't you noticed – or rather, haven't the boys noticed – that the Crest of Love has been performing in a very peculiar manner lately? Glowing at odd, unpredictable times and having the very strangest effects?"The digidestined looked around at each other, for once lost for words.Joe and Izzy flushed to the roots of their hair, Taichi stared at them with a mixture of horror and indignation, Mimi and Kari exchanged glances and started to giggle, Takeru merely raised his eyebrows and looked towards his brother Matt, who did not return the eye contact.Then Sora rose shakily to her feet.Her face was as white as a sheet and her legs trembled beneath her, but she clenched her fists hard at her sides and the look in her eyes was almost venomous.

"Are you telling me," she began in a low, dangerous voice, "That my relationships with two of my friends here have been totally disrupted by this – this _thing_ malfunctioning?"She would have waved the Crest of Love in Gennai's face, had his face actually been there and not a hologram. "Do you mean to say that it is this _malfunction_ which has caused me to be unable to look – certain people in the face again?"Yamato could have sworn Gennai was trying hard not to smile, but he couldn't be sure of it.

"Don't forget, young lady, that this particular _malfunction_ saved your life and the lives of your fellow digidestined.Without that singular distraction, you would never have been able to destroy Metaldevimon.He was one of the most powerful evil digimon you have ever encountered, and all of your combined abilities would not have been sufficient to defeat him under any other circumstances."

"That's not the point and you know it!" raged Sora, her face now red with fury, "I mean, how dare you set me up with this thing, just so that I – "

" – would end up saving yours and everyone else's lives, you mean?Was that such a bad thing?Is that what you mean?"

"No, of course not.What I mean is – Oh, I don't know what I mean!"

Unexpectedly deflated, Sora sank back down to the ground.Mimi and Kari suddenly couldn't hold back the giggles any longer, and once Takeru caught Mimi's eye, he joined in the laughter.Izzy's face let on that he could see the funny side, and Joe, and even Yamato, also allowed themselves to smile.All except for Taichi.He leaped to his feet.

"Well, I still don't see the joke." He snarled, "I don't think it's at all funny that you've all been chasing after my girlfriend."He turned on his heel and stomped off into the woods, his abrupt exit only increasing the laughter.Sora turned to Gennai.

"Now what?" she said, quietly.Gennai had the grace to look a little shamefaced.

"I daresay you will be able to smooth his ruffled feathers, Sora; that is, after all, one of your major talents." He muttered, then "Now, give me your Crest – unless of course you want to have this kind of mindblowing effect on every guy you meet?"Hastily, Sora hung her tag on the end of a stick and extended it through the flames to Gennai.The Crest started to glow, getting brighter and brighter until all the digidestined were shielding their eyes.Then the light subsided, leaving it looking much the same as always.Sora retrieved it and hung it back round her neck. 

"Well, that's settled."Gennai said, "Now, I feel my connection fading.Don't forget to write, will you?But I suggest a few days off to recuperate: this seems a nice spot, reasonably protected, and you really did work very hard over the past few days, I will admit.See ya, kids."The column of light folded itself away into nothing, leaving the humans and digimon scrabbling to rescue their fire and their dinner.Sora gazed anxiously into the trees after Taichi, but felt obliged to finish serving the meal before she went in search of him.Izzy brought his fish and fruit over to where she was serving and sat down near her.He smiled rather hesitantly.

"I have to admit, I'm rather relieved that the events just before we encountered the Arachnamon have now been discovered to be as a result of mechanical malfunction rather than organic over-excitement." He began, "I mean no offence to you, Sora, but it's just not in my nature to be so impulsive, especially with a girl who is not only someone else's girlfriend, but a person whose friendship I value and would sincerely regret losing.I apologise for my behaviour, Sora.Even though there is now a plausible explanation for it, I would like to have your forgiveness all the same."His dark eyes were wide and serious.Just for an instant, Sora found herself imagining what it would be like to love and be loved by Izzy.Then she came back down to earth with a bump: sure, he was cute, but there was no way she was going to spend her life surfing the Internet – forget it! 

"Forget it, Izzy." She smiled, "You're my best friend, apart from Tai.Let's not let something as silly as this drive us apart, huh?"He smiled in relief and squeezed her hand, before being summoned to adjudicate an argument between Patamon and Takeru on the capabilities of his laptop.Mimi and Yamato were helping each other to clear away the remains of supper.Sora looked at the left over fish lying at the side of the fire, took some large leaves and wrapped three of them as neatly as she could manage.She caught Kari's eye.

"I'm going to search for you-know-who." She told her, "I'll try not to be too long, but please ask Biyomon to keep an eye out for us."Kari nodded briefly, going back to her conversation with Joe.Sora cocked an eyebrow, but made no comment.

She took off slowly into the forest, looking for signs of recent hurried departure and on finding them, set of in a generally easterly direction.It wasn't long before she found him, lying on the widest, lowest branch of a large tree, chewing on some grass and frowning.

"Tai!" she called.He ignored her. "Tai, I've brought dinner – you can't go all night without eating."There was a pause, a crash of branches, then Taichi landed athletically on his feet no more than a metre in front of her.He took the proffered bundle, frowned at it and glared at her.

"I can't eat leaves – what the heck's this?"She sighed inwardly and took the bundle, unwrapping the leaves.

"It's fish." She said, patiently, "The leaves are just there to keep them clean – and warm." She added.Grudgingly, he grunted thanks and sat down underneath his tree to eat.The food seemed to penetrate through Taichi's bad mood; as his stomach registered the arrival of some fresh raw material, he began to thaw out, but he wasn't yet remotely mollified.

"So, what was it like, making out with Joe, huh?" he asked, rudely.Sora shrugged.

"How would I know?" she returned, coolly, "You'd know as much about that as me."He acceded her point.

"So who else was there, then? Takeru, Izzy, Matt?"Sora felt her stomach clench at the mention of Matt's name: they were getting very near to perilous waters.She maintained her expressionless demeanour.

"Which one do you want first?Would you like a blow by blow account of exactly what we did, to the last millimetre?Or would you be satisfied with generalities without getting down to the details?"

"Don't play with me, Sora."Taichi's anger abruptly melted away and his shoulders slumped over the remains of his meal.He looked up at her, his huge brown eyes suddenly vulnerable, and she felt her gut twist with pity.

"Don't make fun of me – I can't stand it.I need you so much, there's only ever been you for me – I never even thought about other girls.I just can't handle the idea of anyone else … being with you.Even thinking about Joe having ideas just freaks me out, never mind Izzy or Takeru – or Matt."He was approaching dangerous ground again.Sora smiled gently, and put a hand on his arm.

"Tai, I told you not so long ago: it's you I love." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "I've always loved you, even before we came to the digiworld when we were only eleven.I'm not likely to give that up for the sake of a – well, the malfunction of a piece of machinery, now am I?"He looked up, astonished.

"_Before_ we came here?You loved me then?" She nodded, grinning.

"I adored you." She acknowledged, "You were the reason I first started to play soccer - although I quickly realised the game had merits of its own!But it was mainly to get near you that I joined the team, you know."Taichi stared, absently wiping his oily hands clean on the leaves, then reached out and touched her cheek gently.

"I can't do this without you." He said in a low voice, "I'm only fifteen, and I've been trying to save two worlds for four years.What do I know?We've been unbelievably lucky, but one day something's going to go seriously wrong, and someone's going to get hurt or dead.I can't cope with that sort of responsibility, unless you're there to love me and keep me going."Sora gently kissed the hand that stroked her cheek.

"I'll always be here for you, Tai." she replied softly, and then in an unexpected switch of accustomed roles, she leaned over, took him in her arms and kissed his lips gently.Taichi tried to respond in his usual whirlwind fashion, but she held him at arms length shaking her head, a wicked little smile playing about her lips.

"Uh, huh.My turn to call the shots this time!"He looked puzzled, but obediently waited for her to make her move.Sora's ideas of making out were rather different from his own, Taichi was beginning to realise, as she started to kiss him again, gently nibbling his lower lip, caressing his mouth with her darting, quicksilver tongue.She pushed him down in the grass, continuing to stroke him with unbelievable delicacy and lightness.He had never felt anything remotely like this before, and although he was relishing every moment, there remained a building threat that he would lose control altogether.Finally, awkwardly, he pulled away and lay, just holding her, looking in amazement at her familiar, beloved face.

"Whoa! Oh, man, let me get my breath back!"Sora giggled.Taichi stared at her.

"Where did you learn to do that?"She shrugged.

"It comes naturally – you just never gave me the chance to do it until now."Sora hastily crossed her fingers behind her back."Didn't you like it?"Taichi grinned.

"Sora, it's fantastic.I never realised it could be like that.Will you do it again? Sometime soon?"

"Now, if you like."He quailed slightly.

"Later – for two reasons." He arched eyebrows queried him.

"The first is that, well, frankly with this kind of treatment, I'm gonna need advance warning if I don't wanna lose it completely.You've seriously got me going tonight, you witch, so you'd better just give me some space to cool down, if you get my drift!"Laughing, she hugged him._Thank you, Matt!_

_ _

"And the second?"He grimaced, ruefully.

"It's my first watch, so I'd really better get back to camp before everyone decides to turn in."

They walked back into camp hand in hand to a chorus of whistles and catcalls from the boys.Sora blushed and smiled, and Taichi threw handfuls of leaves and sand at their grinning faces.

"Okay, okay." He said, sheepishly, "Enough said, now just keep away from Sora's Crest in future, will ya?"

"Absolutely!" said Joe, with feeling, "That's a good idea.I like that idea a lot!"Kari, who was sitting next to him, giggled softly and whispered something in his ear.Joe turned bright red up to his scalp, but did not look displeased.Sora observed Mimi, who was sitting nearby, shyly put her hand over Yamato's.He smiled at her, and turned his own hand over to hold her fingers.Sora sighed, mostly with relief: at least that one was progressing normally, although given time she suspected that Kari could make a good relationship even with such unpromising material as Joe.She looked over at Taichi affectionately as he went about checking the watch rota, making sure the fire was banked, everyone was present, etc.

"I'm just going to walk on the beach for a short while before turning in.I won't be long." Taichi nodded as she rose to walk away.Sora felt she needed some space of her own on this fairly momentous day.

She had walked a little way down the beach to watch the sun set, and was now standing, skimming stones across the shallow water.When she heard the sound of someone approaching, she straight away assumed it was Taichi and swung round immediately – but it was Yamato.Abruptly, all her calm and self-possession vanished, and she turned away in confusion.Yamato stood by her side for a minute or two without saying anything, then he took a breath.

"Tai was wondering about you." He said, quietly, "He sent me to make sure you were alright.Gives me the opportunity to speak with you, though, so it's not all bad."Sora turned to look at him.His blue eyes were deep purple in the sunset.

"Matt, I – " She was almost panicking.He put a hand on her arm and left it there.

"Sora, let me speak." His voice was quiet, unthreatening. "I came to offer my thanks to you for keeping quiet and not rocking the boat.If Tai knew that we – well, that I had come under the influence of your Crest at this time, he'd freak out good.I don't think we could continue working together as we do now under those circumstances."Yamato paused.

"And I've also come to add my apologies to those of Izzy and Joe, but I suspect I've a good deal more to apologise for than either of the others."Sora's cheeks were a dull red, and she stared at the ground in embarrassment.Matt lowered his voice.

"The simplest thing in the world would be to lay all the blame on your Crest for what I nearly did to you back there.Something happened to the thing – maybe Gennai engineered it so that we'd have some faint chance against Metaldevimon, I dunno – anyway, it's effect was unbelievable, and if Izzy hadn't managed to contact us just at that moment, well …" Wordlessly, he spread his hands wide.

"Look at me, Sora."Matt took her gently by the shoulders and turned her so that she was facing him.Reluctantly, she raised her eyes to his.

"Sora, I know you love Tai." He continued, "I also realize that he loves and needs you very badly in order to function properly as our leader.He's got to be good at the job, otherwise we're dead, and his support group has got to work.However, I of all people know that he isn't the easiest of guys to be with, and if you need a friend, Sora, I'll be here for you."His gaze was steady. "I can't put it any plainer than that."Sora stared back with wide eyes for a while, then she began to speak. 

"I do love Tai, that's true." She began, carefully, "I can't remember a time when I didn't love him, and without my love and support, he's not going to be able to lead us as well as he should, that's also true.As for what happened between us, Matt, everybody knows that the glitch in my Crest was responsible." Losing her courage, she trailed off, swallowed, began again.

"What I'm trying to say, in a brainless kind of way, is that while we are in the digiworld, the Crest can be the only possible reason for our - involvement."Yamato looked at her sharply.

" You mean …" She cut in quickly.

"I mean there can be no other explanation for it – while we are in the digiworld."She looked at him steadily until he nodded thoughtfully and dropped his eyes.There was a pause while they both absorbed what had been said.Sora smiled.

"Well, Matt, do looks deceive me, or are you and Mimi together now?"Yamato did something rather unaccustomed: he blushed.

"Well, y'know." He began, awkwardly, "I'm not really sure how it happened, but it feels pretty good at the moment."He looked up.

"I'll take you back to camp now." He said quietly, and gestured for her to precede him.

They didn't talk much on the short walk back along the beach.Yamato appeared to be pondering something, Sora was calmly reflecting on the events of the past few days, and every now and again she smiled gently to herself.

I'm sure relieved it turned out to be my Crest that affected the guys so – so strangely, and not just me!I guess Joe will find it difficult to look me in the face for a while, but Izzy seems to have coped with the revelations admirably.And Matt?Oh, yeah – Mr. Supercool.Did he really mean …?But he's with Mimi now, so surely he couldn't ...Oh, aren't relationships complicated – I guess it's part of growing up.I have to wonder where he learned – well, everything he knows.And who from, 'cause it certainly wasn't me calling the shots back there in our cell.But I owe him some thanks: if it hadn't been for Matt, I would never have known that there could be another way different from Tai's.Perhaps that'll help us in the future, or maybe Matt will …but that's something I'm not going to deal with right now.Right now there are two worlds to save, and I need to play my part in that as best I can!


End file.
